Critical care nurses... You all rock!!

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After spending the past 36 hours at my brother's bedside in the CVICU at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, I felt like I needed to give a shout out not only to my brother's team of nurses but to all the critical care nurses out there who are caring for some very ill people. The nurses that I met these past two days were amazing! They were kind and patient. They explained EVERYTHING they were doing, from what medication they were hanging, to what labs they were drawing, to what his blood sugar was and how much insulin they were giving him. I have zero critical care experience and I love learning so I asked a lot of questions; what does PEEP mean? What does it mean when the vent is set at 45? What is that bag of fluid for? And so on and so on. They answered each of my questions and explained everything so well. When my sister-in-law left to go back home for a couple days she was understandably upset about leaving and scared something would happen while she was gone, the first thing my brother's nurse did was hug her and reassure her that she could call anytime day or night to check on him and that they would take care of him. When I called this morning to find out how his night went, his nurse picked up the phone and her first words were "Good morning JoAnna!" The fact that she remembered my name meant a lot. They asked about the pictures we hung on the wall and asked about my brother's dogs. They didn't perform any extraordinary life saving measures on my brother, what made them so great was how they treated him and us. When I left this evening to head back home (3 hours away) I was reassured knowing my brother was being cared for by an awesome team of nurses. So to ALL the critical care nurses out there I say Thank You!

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

You have said in a paragraph why I loved being a critical care nurse. I am SO glad they answered your questions and you KNOW he is being taken care of. I continue to pray and send positive vibes for his recovery.

I'm sure the nurses appreciate your thanks!

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Send this to their nurse manager so that they know they were appreciated and recognized.

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It sounds like your brother was in excellent hands! :-) That's awesome!

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Send this to their nurse manager so that they know they were appreciated and recognized.

I'm going to call up there tomorrow to get the nurse manager's email so I can send her an email and let her know how great her nursing team has been. And I made sure to tell his day shift and PM shift nurses how amazing I thought they were. All too often families fail to show their appreciation and are too quick to criticize the nurses taking care of their loved ones.

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