Updated October, 2025
Encouraging employee wellness is essential for any company, but healthcare employees, especially nurses, deserve special appreciation for their commitment to helping patients.
Nurses work long, stress-filled hours to ensure everyone has access to quality medical care, so gifts that encourage physical and mental wellness can be meaningful employee rewards.
Nurses Day is on May 6 every year, kicking off a week of recognition for nurses and student nurses. Keep reading to learn why (and how) you should participate in National Nurses Day, along with which digital rewards nurses love most!
According to a Mental Health America survey, 93% of healthcare workers reported regular stress on the job, and nurses were more likely than any other position to feel exhausted after work.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, nursing turnover has spiked, and clinics and hospitals are experiencing shortages that add to the remaining nurses’ workload, leading to more stress and potential burnout.
But even beyond this, celebrating Nurses Day is about recognizing the expertise and dedication that nurses bring to patient care every single day.
Nurses are often the primary point of contact for patients, coordinating care, catching potential complications, and providing emotional support during some of life's most vulnerable moments.
Taking time to celebrate reinforces how much their work matters to their individual patients and to our entire healthcare system at large.❤️
Of course, nurses work hard every day. That's why many Human Resources (HR) teams in healthcare organizations show gratitude to their hard working nurses by creating an ongoing employee reward program, rewarding nurses (and others) for outstanding patient care, work anniversaries, birthdays, training, and the like.
And even a simple coffee gift card can go a long way.
Think about it: maybe a $10 Starbucks gift card doesn’t seem like much of a reward in exchange for the intensive work nurses do, getting their favorite coffee for free can be a much-needed bright spot in the middle of a taxing 12-hour shift.
💬 Like Giftbit Director of Business Development Matt Brossard says, “even with the way prices have gone up, a $5 Starbucks card feels like, ‘coffee’s on me, a treat’s on me.' You're basically inviting somebody to take a few minutes to themselves, have a treat, and get away from the stress of work."
Nurses Day isn't your only opportunity to honour your people. Find more days and ways to give here:
♥ Easy Ways To Reward Frontline Workers
Rewards are excellent for boosting employee engagement and reducing turnover, but what kind of rewards do employees want?
A survey on employee incentive preferences found that 41% of employees want gift cards or prepaid cards, third only to bonuses and time off work.
So, moving beyond those coffee gift cards, if you want to give your nurses rewards they’ll love, consider the following digital gift card ideas:
Gift cards for romantic dinners and coffee dates can be thoughtful rewards for nurses who need more time with family and friends, however the best gift for a tired nurse is food delivery options. Nobody wants to cook dinner after a long nursing shift.
After long, hectic shifts, nurses need some rejuvenating self-care to feel confident and nurtured before returning to work.
Encourage them to treat themselves with gift cards from brands like:
Nurses should take time off work to give themselves mental health breaks and avoid burnout.
Whether it’s for a family vacation or a weekend trip, you could pitch in with gift cards from brands like these:
Nursing can be physically taxing. If you have nursing staff that likes to keep fit, you could reward them with gift cards to the top athletic brands, such as:
Busy nurses might find it hard to eat healthy while working long hours. The following are brands that offer healthy diet supplements so nurses can get the vitamins they need to stay strong:
With a simple API integration and more easy ways to send digital gift cards and a growing employee rewards catalog, Giftbit takes the legwork out of boosting employee engagement and rewarding your people.