"From doctors to beautiful ladies..."

[epiphany]

Keith Richards left a note to hospital he stayed at:

"From the doctors to the beautiful ladies who make painful nights less painful and shorter, I'm pretty much at a loss for words to express my deep gratitude"

I guess by "beautiful ladies" he means the nurses. Were all the doctors males, or ugly women, I wonder? I guess the doctors cured him and the beautiful ladies... did something.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/11/arts/music/11cnd-stones.html?hp&ex=1147406400&en=9e9bb851aad3fad6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[SharonH, RN]

Let me defend myself. First of all, I don't disagree that Richards meant well. If he were my patient, I certainly wouldn't have gone off on him for saying what he did, but it would have irritated me. In fact, yesterday I got two compliments from a patient's wife: "you're all such angels to do this work" and "honey, here's your beautiful nurse." I smiled and accepted the compliments, but on the inside, it irritates me that these are the kinds of things that people say about nurses all the time. They don't get that there's a lot more to nursing than being sweet and caring.

Hillary

Hillary, I share your disappointment.

As I stated in my original response to this post, I am sure that Mr. Richards meant well.

I am also sure that the nurses who took care of Mr. Richards were beautiful both in appearance and in spirit. However, and I am speaking in general now, I feel that it really devalues the skill we use in providing care by focusing solely on the caretaking aspects of our job.......the handholding, hugging , caring, I *heart* my patients, etc. etc. And we [nurses] can really take much of the blame for this quite inaccurate public perception of the biz, can't we?

There is no doubt that our profession has been negatively affected by the overemphasis on these aspects of the job as evidenced by the belief that anyone can do it. And trust me, there is not a lot of respect by the general public for the skill level of nursing. Yes, they trust us and respect us, after all we're "dedicated", we're "caring", we're "angels of mercy', we're the "backbone of healthcare". Those are all very worthy adjectives but there's just a little more to it than that, isn't it?

[lannisz]

I appreciate any graditude at all....so often we hear nothing but complaints. I am not going to take offense at a heartfelt compliment whether or not it's politically correct

[Multicollinearity, BSN, RN]

Hillary, I share your disappointment.

As I stated in my original response to this post, I am sure that Mr. Richards meant well.

I am also sure that the nurses who took care of Mr. Richards were beautiful both in appearance and in spirit. However, and I am speaking in general now, I feel that it really devalues the skill we use in providing care by focusing solely on the caretaking aspects of our job.......the handholding, hugging , caring, I *heart* my patients, etc. etc. And we [nurses] can really take much of the blame for this quite inaccurate public perception of the biz, can't we?

There is no doubt that our profession has been negatively affected by the overemphasis on these aspects of the job as evidenced by the belief that anyone can do it. And trust me, there is not a lot of respect by the general public for the skill level of nursing. Yes, they trust us and respect us, after all we're "dedicated", we're "caring", we're "angels of mercy', we're the "backbone of healthcare". Those are all very worthy adjectives but there's just a little more to it than that, isn't it?

I agree.