Groovy Team Building – NICU Team Creates Fun Tie-dyed Onesies for Patients

Valley’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) has started a fun tradition that’s both a great team building event and a way to bring smiles to the faces of NICU families. During quarterly team craft night events, staff members gather to prepare festive projects to hang in the NICU babies’ rooms. Past projects include turkeys, snowmen, and hearts. The team preps the materials during craft night and then incorporates each tiny patient’s hand and foot prints for a keepsake the families can take home.

This summer, the team decided to try a vintage craft project—tie dye!  A group from the NICU and Valley’s Children’s Therapy Clinic gathered at a staff member’s home to tie-dye both onesies for the babies and t-shirts for the NICU staff to wear with their scrubs for a week-long tie-dye event on the unit.

“It was a fun experience that allowed us to be creative, have some fun as a work team, and get to know some of our teams’ family members in a relaxed environment,” says NICU and Pediatrics-Mother Baby Nurse Manager Bo Scholzen. “For many, it was their first time. We brought shirts, food and creativity together and had a fabulous time!”

The tie-dye event was so popular that staff have asked for additional tie-dye weeks later this summer.