Baffled...

nursegirl75 · Apr 1, 2012

Let me tell you, I kill them with kindness. I could always get the grumpiest patient to say thank you at the end of my shift haha.

sharpeimom · Apr 1, 2012

not being thanked very often as a psych nurse, made me very conscious of thanking everyone who cared for me.

plus which, i can always hear my mom's voice inside my head saying, "what's the magic word?" when i'd forget

to say please or thank you as a kid.

pockunit, ADN, RN · Apr 1, 2012

I thanked each and every person who stepped foot into my room when I was in-pt. Housekeeping, phlebotomy, nurses, EVERY.ONE. Might've been the dilaudid.

I hope it made up for hitting the call button every time I heard an IV (mine or anyone else's) go off. :lol2:

Vespertinas · Apr 1, 2012

I used to work on a unit where we had to stash our own K-Dur because the pharmacy was never giving them on time and patients were often ordered NOW doses. Once when someone asked me if I had any potassium I responded, "I've got so much potassium.... it's coming out of my assium!" .....No one knew that was a scrubs joke

Ooooon the topic of the RN who wants to get thanked...I've gotten report from a nurse or two who said, "You know.. I've been fetching things for this patient all day and not once did he say thank you. So I finally walked out of his room and said 'your welcome' and now he's got the idea." It didn't come off as obnoxious to me (the RN) and in fact I was kind of glad that someone before me had the nerve to remind the patient that we're not their maids.

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Apr 2, 2012

Upset that patients don't thank her for everything she does? I'm happy as long as mine don't hit, bite or spit at me....

nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN · Apr 2, 2012

I've been on both sides of the rails. Even when I thought one of those things from Aliens was going to come chewing out of my belly button, and had true 10/10 pain (complete with tachycardia, HTN, tachypnea, etc.), I was always polite. I never yelled, swore, threw things, threatened, snapped, or treated the people who came to help me like they were pond scum. I didn't hit the call bell every 5 minutes just because I could. I didn't order people around like they were minions from "Despicable Me." I treated everyone from the MDs to nurses to dietary and housekeeping with the equal amount of respect (even when they brought me something to eat that I think only Abby on NCIS could determine what it was when it was alive....). And I always said "please" and "thank you."

No, I don't expect thank yous. Because people aren't being taught manners, they aren't being taught how to behave in a civil manner, and only rarely do people get called on acting like a jerk. And that's not just in nursing, that's everywhere. You think that pilot that went nuts on his flight last week is going to be "un nutty" to his nurses? The person who's a jerk in Wal-Mart isn't going to be a jerk in the hospital? Nope.

So, take a Zen approach. Expect nothing, want nothing (in terms of gratitude). You might as well, because you're not going to get it anyway.....

Sifty · Apr 2, 2012

Anyway, I'm only 26 but was raised to say my please and thank-yous often and with sincerity. I get a lot of compliments about how nice/pleasant/polite I am. I definitely out-please and thank you my patients. Tack on a sir or ma'am and you don't have that awkward moment where you realize that you've mispronounced a name or, even worse, called them by the wrong name. And the older folks love it.

I was raised in a similar manner. It doesn't take much to be polite and it can make your day go easier. Also when people are really ***** about something if you are really polite they often get confused and don't know what else to say.

I used to work with a lot of miners in a rural area and would get sick of all the swearing. I remember one guy I asked to stop swearing just shut up altogether and walked away as he couldn't think of what else to say. (Made me laugh).

My mother who owns a cafe will often stand and wait after people have placed their order until they say "please". Especially the ones who seem to have been brought up without knowledge of manners.

That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Apr 2, 2012

I never expect a thank you.

Mr. Murse · Apr 2, 2012

I'm a new nurse (about 6 months in), but just from life in general I had learned long before nursing not to expect anything when it comes to human behavior, particularly in stressful situations. I put a lot into making each patient feel like they're the only patient and I get a lot of thank you's, but I never have expected it from patients. It is our job to give each one our best regardless of whether they're disoriented and cussing us out or the sweetest patient in the world. If I never got a thank you or any indication of gratefulness I would reassess my interaction with and behavior towards my patients........

dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN · Apr 2, 2012

I was raised in a similar manner. It doesn't take much to be polite and it can make your day go easier. Also when people are really ***** about something if you are really polite they often get confused and don't know what else to say.

Yup! I've even had it work for the rowdy, detoxing drunk -- I think they get more confused than anything else, lol.

I definitely don't expect the same from my patients, of course. Although I've found that politeness usually begets politeness.

Not that I'm entirely sure why our patients should be thanking us. "Thanks for wiping my butt after I was incontinent everywhere"? "Thanks for giving me that pain medicine that I desperately needed"? Uh, no. Especially for the embarrassing crap /no pun intended, which is half of nursing anyway. I do my job discretely and you (the patient) certainly don't have to thank me for doing it.

I did have one little old lady whose hand I held while we waited for the morphine and lasix to kick in after a nasty, sudden CHF exacerbation. I got both a "thank you so much for everything that you've done for me, you've been like a daughter" AND a "I love you" which made me automatically tear up on the spot.

wooh, BSN, RN · Apr 2, 2012

I don't expect a thank you from patients. A few times I have had heartfelt thanks. A guy called me to say, "I took your advice, I did what you said, now my blood sugars are great and I feel great."
That meant a lot to me!! It was validating! And a "unicorn," to say the least.
What does bother me? Being undervalued by management and by the big healthcare corporation (s) that I work for. Sure, I get a paycheck, but it would be really nice to hear a "thanks for all you do" from TPTB, on occasion.
Patients don't know or care that we and the docs even more so studied for years, developed expertise, and stay up to date in our respective fields. Management does though...they know we didn't just wake up one day with knowledge and competence.

I don't need thank yous, but I do get a bit annoyed when patients/families act like they're doing ME a favor. (And please, I don't need the, "Without patients, we wouldn't have a paycheck" lecture.)

Agree with hey_suz, it would be nice if hospital management would treat nurses more like an asset and less like an expense. After all, you can't get paid to care for patients if you have more pretty paint in the hospital lobby and no nurses.

I'm lucky that I do have pretty decent unit management right now. And working nights, I'm staying out of trouble, hehe!

Patient thank yous are nice to get. But I tell you what meant even more to me. Got my yearly eval last week and there were quotes from my coworkers peer evals. And they were REALLY nice. Having great coworkers is even better than having great patients. :)

On_the_on, BSN · Apr 2, 2012

She should have realised by now that people are "bastard coated bastards with bastard filling".

I am pretty sure this is the funniest thing I have ever read! If it is ok with you I am going to steal it....Rock on!

ETA: I guess I should have kept reading.....Consider it stolen!