[santhony44]

Thanks for posting. I emailed her, too.

[RunninDad]

I sent her an email as well. She was kind enough to respond and tell me to say "thanks for the hard work" to my wife. It's awesome when people realize the work that nurses do, and try to promote the public education of it.

[annmariern]

After a stretch of hideous 14-15 hrs shifts & after 23 years despairing of my choice of career, two things happened today. I recieved a thank you card from a recent pt at home, amazed I got it at all as my apt number isnt in the phone book address and it made it anyway. Second, this article. I wish the public would know what we are up against daily, and that management would realise that their most precious resource isn't fancy private rooms, gadgetry etc. It's nurses who are allowed to do what we trained to do. All of us will find ourselves in the dreaded backless gown one day.

[ranaazha]

"Nurses...don't care if you throw up on them, miss the bedpan or hit the call light for water in the middle of the night when you're scared and don't want to be alone."

Don't entirely agree...

"They will go to bat for you against disease, track down doctors on golf courses and skip meals and clocking out on time just to check on you one last time."

Agree.

"They are dedicated to the weak, the confused, the broken of body, mind and spirit. But too often, they get a bad rap from patients.

"A national Medicare survey of patient satisfaction shows 73 percent of patients said their nurses always communicated well. In Northeast Ohio, that fell to as low as 61 percent.


"It could be that nurses don't always listen, or maybe medical care trumps communication."


I appreciate that she's taking a closer look at this.

"Patients ranked their communication with doctors better, but I'd wager that's because expectations are lower. A nurse can spend all day checking your stats, fixing your IV, adjusting your sheets, but if a doctor speaks to you for 15 seconds, you feel honored for the visit."


This is hard to believe, but the justification makes sense.

"I wonder how satisfied nurses are with patients. I'd like to see a survey where nurses rank how well patients treat them. Better yet, the patients' families. Some of them are straight out of Jerry Springer."

Thank you!

"People don't go into nursing because they love paperwork, working holidays, or enjoy being on their feet for 12 hours. They go into nursing because they want to help people.


"My guess is nurses would love to communicate better. If they had the time, they would. Perhaps they could use a bit more patience from their patients."

Definitely.

[Chaya]

Well stated-I'm sure it speaks for a lot of us too busy to put our thoughts into words.

[MAISY, RN-ER]

I emailed her too when I read the article-also sent that article to everyone I could think of. Too bad the AP didn't pick it up.

Maisy