BEST GIFT you ever received from a family member or patient?

Nurses General Nursing

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I just know you have gotten kudos from your patients. All kinds! We all have in some way or another. I remember the life story of a lady from Germany who came here at the turn of the century who related to me the miracle of coming to America and appreciating our less rigid ways and her attending the Worlds Fair and of her genuine gratitude of what life had given her...she passed the following day. A lot of times that's the way it happens...telling me a life story and departing soon thereafter. A great gift to have been given.

Or...

I remember the two huge bags of Grapes from an hispanic family. I'd cared for their grandmother, when I was a CNA and could spend all day caring in the room and less on documentation. Not just your common seedless variety, but multicolored, full of flavor and crunchy!

Or just the comment that rings like this: Thank you! You really did something special by being my nurse last night! Thats my favorite gift -- genuine thanks and gratitude!

Specializes in Med/Surg; Psych; Tele.

Man, these are some great stories! I'm getting a little ticked however just thinking about something that happened recently: My weekend Charge Nurse told me that a patient had written a 3 page letter about how good his care was and that I had been mentioned almost constantly throughout the letter. My charge nurse then told me that she thought she threw it away b/c she thought she had been mentioned in it, but it turned out she had not been. So I asked my manager about it, and he was clueless.:angryfire

Like Leslie, I too always accept food!!

I also love it when patients ask me how they let management know what a great nurse I've been.

Specializes in LTC, Cardiac Step-Down.

The best gift I ever got was a little angel pin from a lady who had been in bed for weeks, was trached and could barely talk. Nobody else much liked her, and she didn't like anybody else, but we got along really well and I think something about the way I treated her and tried to understand her speaking around the trach really touched her. Just the fact that she had remembered me, had asked one of her family members to get something, and wrote the card painstakingly herself was just overwhelming to me.

I still get that card and pin out to this day when I think I can't do this anymore, and it always helps me remember why I'm doing it in the first place :)

Pepper

Specializes in NICU.

This might sound sort of... morbid? I guess? But the best gift I've gotten was at the funeral of my primary patient who died a few weeks ago. His mother asked all his primary nurses to come, because we knew the baby much better than most of her family, who had only seen him a few times, if at all. During the funeral we nurses stood in a little knot in the back so we wouldn't disturb the family or be in the way. The mom came over and said to us "I'd rather be with you guys right now." Knowing that she knew how much we had cared about her son really made the whole ordeal of the last six months worth it.

Specializes in Geriatrics, Transplant, Education.

The best gift I ever received from a pt was a big kiss on the cheek and an "I love you!"

She was 96 y/o, deaf/mute...a pt on our TCU since before I started orientation two months ago, moved down the hall to LTC two weeks ago.

She passed away in her sleep this morning. I'll never forget that moment. :saint:

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