Ideas That Work: A Fun Way to Celebrate Each Other

Practical pearls from your colleagues.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced us all to adjust and adapt on the fly like never before in an endless variety of ways personally, socially and professionally. This sea change led to creativity, resourcefulness and outside-the-box thinking to address all manner of things large and small.

Some ideas have “stuck” in the post-pandemic world. One small but powerful example: birthday celebrations for co-workers, long a matter of passing around greeting cards to sign and getting together for cake in the breakroom. None of that was possible during the lockdown, so leaders and staff at Penn Medicine University City ASC in Philadelphia leveraged technology to celebrate each other’s accomplishments and milestones. “As celebrations and vacations were canceled, a solution to use social media for a staff member’s upcoming 60th birthday became a creative way to mark their milestone without violating any social-distancing restrictions,” says Penn Medicine Perioperative Staff Nurse Lisa Bachetti, BSN, RN, CNOR.

The ASC subscribed to an online platform that allows users to easily request, collect and combine video clips to create personalized group videos. Staff created their own videos for the birthday celebrant and uploaded them to the website, where they were combined into a single master video.

To provide an additional personal touch, Ms. Bachetti used an app to create and upload an introductory slideshow video to the online platform featuring photos of the celebrant at their wedding, at nursing school and with their children. “Those old pics are really a great conversation starter!” she says.

A link to the resulting combined video was shared with the celebrant, and even the celebrant’s family and friends were looped in. “The surprised celebrant viewed the video among staff members, creating a memorable gift to be saved and downloaded by all,” says Ms. Bachetti.

The idea was such a hit that the team still celebrates each other digitally.

“It has become a much-anticipated team-building exercise,” says Ms. Bachetti. “As social distancing restrictions were lifted, staff used their creativity to add TikTok dances and comedic skits to the birthday videos.” She says the video app has led to lots of laughs and warm feelings, and staff feels more engaged with each other as a result. OSM