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.

I do write thank you's, I was fighting saying I don't have time, but we have a office drawing the more you write the more times you can enter your name for a chance to win, so I finally sat down one evening after work and I did two, but I remembered after I had my surgery not only did I receive a call after to find out how I was doing, my nurse was great and she took the time to write me a short note which I appreciated. It's a 50.00 Gift Card if you win the more you write the more chances you have of winning.

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I do write thank you's, I was fighting saying I don't have time, but we have a office drawing the more you write the more times you can enter your name for a chance to win, so I finally sat down one evening after work and I did two, but I remembered after I had my surgery not only did I receive a call after to find out how I was doing, my nurse was great and she took the time to write me a short note which I appreciated. It's a 50.00 Gift Card if you win the more you write the more chances you have of winning.

@brendaskime, You do not have any ethical concerns with sending a note to a patient knowing that your incentive to is to win a prize?

1
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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
I do write thank you's, I was fighting saying I don't have time, but we have a office drawing the more you write the more times you can enter your name for a chance to win, so I finally sat down one evening after work and I did two, but I remembered after I had my surgery not only did I receive a call after to find out how I was doing, my nurse was great and she took the time to write me a short note which I appreciated. It's a 50.00 Gift Card if you win the more you write the more chances you have of winning.

Calling to follow up on the efficacy of the treatment plan is fine, and when the doc I saw at a local urgent care center did so I appreciated it very much.

In a clinic or office, it may be part of a marketing strategy as any small business might do, but overall I am not comfortable with such a requirement for nurses.

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I received a card thanking me for choosing the facility and wishing me well with my recovery, signed by various staff who I interacted with as well as some of my nurses. I appreciated the card and the thought behind it. I think there is a tendency to forget that often patients have choices about where they receive their care. It's nice to see an attitude that doesn't take patients for granted.

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Would you want your patients to access confidential files to find out your home address and send you a thank you letter?

Along with the potential HIPPA violations, This is how patients and their family members end up finding you on social media or public records search. Then they start asking you medical questions and about their conditions, which is all HIPPA protected and requires a signed release to discuss and under what circumstances etc. I am all about my patient when they are in my care, but that relationship stops the second they are discharged or transferred, unless follow-up care/calls are part of the job description. Patients are in a vulnerable state and may make inappropriate assumptions about your "personal note".

I want to leave my job at work when I go home, not bring it home with me via social media or some kind of ongoing interaction with patients that can jeopardize my license.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, GYN, Antepartum.

I know this post is old. I stumbled upon it because I wanted to discharge patients with a thank you note from the unit. While some have mentioned that they didn't want to something such as retail, we do get rated by the patients who are indeed our "customers." People choose where they want to receive their care, it isn't because the physician sent them. I have had patients leave their home towns and drive to the hospital I work at. I think it is a nice gesture, we're getting rated whether we like it or not, so why not show our patients that we do appreciate them choosing us? I

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

My initial thoughts are 1) why feed that hotel mentality.... and more importantly 2) we all have enough to do... 99+% of which is more important than making thank you cards for every single patient.

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