Thank You Notes to Patients?

Nurses Relations

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  1. Do you write personal thank you notes to your patients?

    • 22
      Yes
    • 80
      No
    • 3
      Sometimes

78 members have participated

Hey y'all!

Do any of you hand write thank you notes? If you do, what do you say? My facility sends pre-printed notes that all of us sign, but for the last month or so I've started sending a relatively generic hand-written note to all of my patients who are discharged home... I work on an oncology unit, so many of our families receive sympathy cards instead. With that said, what is or is not appropriate to say in a thank you note?

Here's what I typically say in my thank you notes:

"I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed being your nurse during your stay on 12 East. You were a great patient and I'm so happy you're feeling better.

I hope you keep getting stronger every day!"

Lots of times I personalize the note with something I've learned about the patient or their family... and if I truly did not enjoy being their nurse or if they were NOT a very good patient (rude/demanding) I leave those parts out or replace them with something different.

What do you think?? I always use hospital stationary and never take patient info away from the hospital, so no HIPAA violations.

Specializes in MDS/ UR.

Never mind

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Specializes in Oncology, Palliative Care.
Wow......crusty old one. Interesting. I think this has been an interesting thread that will help many nurses in their practice....this is clearly a polarizing topic and something that faces nurses every day.......

Crusty old one........:roflmao:

I have been a nurse since I was 18 years old. I have been a nurse for 35 years. While I have wandered into management......I have kept my feet firmly planted at the bedside for it is my only love.

I am probably the most compassionate, loving, caring person I know or you will ever meet. I LOVE being a nurse and I LOVE my patients....even the ones who hurl obscenities amongst other "things".

I have snuck babies and dog into an ICU so that person who probably won't get off the OR table can see their first born grand-baby and to save the dog from dying because it quit eating because it missed it's owner.

I took a dying patient to an area in the hospital to see her beloved miniature horse one last time.

I have honored a vented patients last wish to feed the ducks on the pond where I worked by gathering an entire hospital portable O2 and tanks to fulfill that wish.

I packed up a vent patient with ALS ON MY OWN TIME to see her daughter skate in an important competition knowing it would probably be her last.

I snuck a 6 pack of beer and a pizza and her 3 small children in ICU to a dying Mom of 24 from ovarian cancer so she could see her babies......

I mean this in the best way........you have NO IDEA who I am.

I don't often clarify what people think for really ....... I don't care and those who know me understand. Today is an exception.

I think that although I might have a superficial crust from all of the....uhm.....dirt that has been slung at me over the years....... it only provides a fine layer of protection from further assaults from what I have learned...and witnessed.....and are current behaviors adapted by administration and is the current thought process of hospital administrators.

Being the victim of said mudslinging....... I try to make myself somehow feel better by warning others of the amoralistic (if there is such a word) behavior of most administrators. They will sling anyone, including their own mother, in front of a moving bus to save their own ass. (yes ass is allowed as long as you are not calling someone an ass;))

OP I am so glad you have done your homework....I hope you are right and my dire words of warning are unfounded for I would never want anyone to have to face the heartbreak that came my way because I was a good nurse and I was made the sacrificial goat. :inlove:

I really admire you for these things... nurses like you are too few and far between.

P.S. You do realize the "crusty old ones" thing was me referring to someone else's quote, right?? Not negative name-calling, I promise! I would rather work with the "old crusty" nurses on my unit any day... they (usually) know the rules and follow them and (usually) do the right thing, because it's the right thing to do. They give me something to strive for, just like you. Thanks for that.

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Specializes in Oncology, Palliative Care.
I think a lot of us come across more jaded and heartless than we really are.

Being a little jaded every now and then never hurt anybody... and y'all are anything but heartless and never come across that way. If you were heartless you never would have tried to protect me in the first place!

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Specializes in ED, Telemetry,Hospice, ICU, Supervisor.

Why would I send them a thank you note?

I find that very strange. Am I to say "thank you, please come again". Feels like we are slowly but surely turning into a hotel or fast food chain. We like their business so much we want them back in the hospital? That is very strange to me.

Honestly after some of the things we do for them shouldn't WE be receiving thank you letters form them. Every time they send letters to the floor, its a reminder of how appreciated we are for all our hard work.

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Specializes in Oncology, Palliative Care.
Seriously. I consider myself more adherent to good customer service than average because I actually believe in it. But this angle really... perplexes me. It's disturbing. I'm sorry to put it that way. I understand you mean well but it is a bit odd. Really, what ARE you thanking them for?

Funny thing, I didn't ever thank them... Calling it a "thank you" note was a TERRIBLE choice of words on my part. Here's what I said in my initial post...

Here's what I typically say in my thank you notes:

"I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed being your nurse during your stay on 12 East. You were a great patient and I'm so happy you're feeling better.

I hope you keep getting stronger every day!"

They were just the cards the hospital uses that happen that say "thank you" on the front and have a blurb about "we know you have choices thanks for picking us blah, blah...." Since those are the cards I used, the ones I got permission to use, I casually referred to them as thank you notes. Not smart on my part, I realize. :down: Really they were just "thinking of you" notes. In fact, they are the exact same cards I get from the office/nursing staff and doctor every time I go to the hospital-affiliated doctor's office that everyone has signed their names to.

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carolinapooh,

I do get that. Good intentions and not wanting the OP to get burned. From most, but a few old crusty types.:***::roflmao:

It was crunchrn who mentioned crusty old ones in post 101 of this thread, hellobery just picked up on it. I believe the term "crusty old bats" started awhile ago, after one of the posters called some of the experienced nurses the name, instead of taking offense, they owned it and informally formed the crusty old bat society.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
crusty old bat society.
Of which I am an official card holder! ;)

I think there are old school and new school though processes at work here.....and getting burned. As was quoted by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux in the 10th century, "Hell is full of good intentions or desires." This whole idea of "customer service" is foreign to some of us who were schooled in doing our duty and maintaining professionalism (starched white and all) at all times. We were to give all ask for nothing.

I think we have seen too many good people get burned at the stake that we will throw ourselves into saving someone else from possibly suffering the same fate. I also think there is a demographic factor. I know if I sent personal notes to some of the folks when I worked the South-side of Chicago's Cook county hospital....the reception of these notes would not be received well.....even if they gave their right address or even if they had an address to send it to. Besides I would NEVER put my return address on the envelope...:eek:.

I moved to the east coast and while the clientele expect tea served upon arrival and be treated with the utmost respect, dignity and manners as befitting their station....they would consider it a HUGE breech of "etiquette" to their private space. They would report you in a New York minute.

OP you have a great heart...that is clear. Think of us of your nagging surrogate mothers who is telling you for the 20th time to put a coat on because you are going to catch your death in this weather! :inlove:

Es....:)

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I am crusty cause the layers help me filter out the poop......

I have been an emt for over 25 years, and a cna for 20. An LPN for 7. There is precious little someone can tell me that I have not heard before, some embellished more than others. I am partial to the "undesirables" because they are little on poop, lots of creativity points. Everyone is welcome at my table, heck, I'll even save you a seat. But I call it like I see it, and enjoy the lively debate, but at the end of the day I don't say it unless I have seen it with my own eyes, and know things to be true.

Esme, you rock hard!! And to the OP, it is all about motive, it is all about end goal. I enjoy what one could consider "difficult" "undesireable" the patients no one wants to care for, cause the crust protects me, and their crust of choice makes us two of a kind.

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Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

Yes, I brought the "crusty old" thing up. As a joke.

I am 50 and have been a nurse for over 20 years so I feel "entitled" to use that term.

It was originally coined by a youngen who asked for advice and then got all ticked off when they did not like the advice given by experienced nurses.

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Specializes in Gerontology RN-BC and FNP MSN student.

I have never sent thank you notes to a patient as a nurse. However one of my in~laws just came thru the whole ordeal of surgery, chemo, radiation and their Oncology center sent them a card....And it really touched them and made their day....they still bring it up. How sweet is was and how personal it felt. If you have time for that...keep it up, it is special and does touch their hearts.♥

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Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.

A card from the entire Oncology center is appropriate but it does not compare to a nurse on a unit sending notes to select patients.I think the OP is denying the difference that we all can see,I don't know how else to explain post after post.

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
What exactly are you thanking them for? Choice of hospital is based on physician preferences/admitting privileges. "Thank you for not using the call bell too much" "Thanks so much for not falling out of bed" "We really appreciated your ability to bathe yourself" The mind boggles.

Is this another scheme to drive up HCAHP scores? Sounds like it. What's next? This may be 'nice', but I think it is ultimately confusing for patients and their families who already compare us to retail establishments. "Hey, at this price you girls should be topless .. he he he (actual comment from ICU patient's family member)

I was on the verge of saying something, but decided to self-edit. ;)

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