Ideas for Get Well Gifts for a Man in ICU

An intensive care unit in a hospital is for patients who need extra help and monitoring during the healing process. Men who are in intensive care units usually spend most of their time in bed, which can become rather boring and depressing. You should give a man in intensive care a gift that keeps him entertained, makes him feel closer to home or keeps up his spirits. These types of gifts will make his stay in intensive care more bearable.

Movie Gift Basket

• When a man is in the intensive care unit of a hospital, he won't be doing much moving around so he'll need something that doesn't require much movement to keep him entertained. Fill a gift basket with some of his favorite movies. You can also include a personal DVD player and a set of headphones in the basket. This will allow him to watch his videos without disturbing his hospital roommate. Make sure that the DVD player is battery-operated so electrical cords will not interfere with other wires and tubes typically found in an intensive care unit. Having a DVD player without a cord will also help prevent a patient or visitor from falling by tripping over the cord.

Family Photo

• Some men will stay in the hospital for an extended period of time if their condition is serious enough that they need extra care. In this situation, family members may not be able to stay or visit the hospital as often as they would like. To remind a man in intensive care that his family is thinking about him even if they can't visit all the time, give him a framed picture of his family. The picture can be put on the nightstand next to his hospital bed so that he can look at it easily without having to strain to see it. However, some intensive care units do not allow gifts on nightstands or tables in the patient rooms. If this is the case for your loved one, you can still give him a picture of his family, but it will need to be put in a special location, such as a bulletin board provided for cards and photos.

Books and Magazine

• To help a man pass his time in the hospital, give him a favorite magazine or latest best-selling book. While most intensive care units won't allow novelty gifts, many allow patients to have books and magazines in their rooms. As with conversations, you want to limit these magazine or book selections to topics that will not upset the patient. Having a positive mindset is important for patient recovery and healing. While sad or depressing books can make for good reads, providing reading material that could be upsetting may negatively affect your loved one's recovery.

Gift Card

• Spirits can dip when spending a lot of time in a hospital bed. To keep a man's spirit up, give him a funny card and a gift certificate for a local pub. While he can't use the gift card right away, he can look forward to getting well enough that he can. You can also tell him that when he gets out of the hospital, you and a bunch of friends will take him out to the bar, have some drinks and grab a bite to eat. Rather than getting down in the dumps about being sick, you'll give him something to look forward to and work extra hard toward getting better.