Food = nurses' love language

Last week I was sitting on the couch after dinner and reached for the computer to find something to bake for my last day on the inpatient psych unit. It was getting late and when I told Chris I had to bake something he seemed a bit incredulous. I think his exact words were something along the lines of: "What?? Is this like first grade? You have to bring something in on your last day?"

It made me think. Why is the tradition to bring in food to say thanks to your nursing staff? Not only do we students do it, but other nurses bring in food, and I've seen patients' families bring in food. I mean, I totally understand food as a way to say thanks and/or as a gift (hmm...Chris gave me a 1lb. bag of peanut M&Ms for Valentine's Day before we started dating...wonder if this is why we have lasted so long?!), but why not a gift card, or a framed picture, or some sort of other, more lasting token?

Regardless of the reason, it seems that food is a nursing staff's love language. I know that around hour seven of a shift when I only had about 10 minutes to eat a third of my lunch a couple hours ago, that finding a cookie or some other type of snack in the break room is about equivalent to finding $10 that you didn't remember having in the back pocket of your jeans (low blood sugar changes your priorities...it's probably scientific). 

So we baked. And I'll probably bake again for my other clinical, and probably again next semester, too.