Thank You Notes to Patients?

Nurses Relations

Published

  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.

It will. Right up to the point someone remembers there was something about you they didn't like, and now they have your name....or some other such harebrained ridiculousness...

I'm afraid I'll be in the military until I qualify for membership in GrnTea's society (until I'm old enough to be inducted as president without a vote), because there's no way in Hades the Feds would ever go for this.

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Specializes in Oncology, Palliative Care.
We do not write personal thank-you notes to patients at my workplace but management is throwing the idea around that we start doing this. They think it will boost the patient satisfaction scores.[/quote']

Doing it simply to boost numbers would be so sad... It would take away every bit of the sincerity if I was required to do it.

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Specializes in Oncology.

We send sympathy cards but not thank you cards. I rarely sign the sympathy cards unless I took care of the patient a lot or their family was there a lot because I always found it fairly awkward.

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Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

I think what you are doing is great. You form a totally different bond with oncology patients than you do with most others. In office nursing at least that was always true.

You have your managers blessing, you are doing it because you want to and not because it is some PR thing being crammed down your throat.

I totally get that. Think it is cool too. I would want my family to have a nurse like you.

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My Dad is an Oncology patient and he always tells us about how wonderful the nurses/team are when he returns from his 6 month check up at (MD Anderson in TX). It is one of the reasons I chose to go to nursing school. I hope some day I can help someone the way his team of medical staff have helped him. There is a special bond between the Oncology team and their patients.

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Thank you notes and handwritten notes/cards are a lost art period. I think it is a thoughtful gesture.

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Doing it simply to boost numbers would be so sad... It would take away every bit of the sincerity if I was required to do it.

helloberry,

Why do you think your hospital implemented the group thank you cards if not too boost patient satisfaction survey results?

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I agree it's a lost art, but this isn't the forum to revive it in.

We all sent a patient a thank you note once when they bought lunch for the whole unit. A nice lunch - catered and everything. Fancy stuff! That's the decent thing to do.

But that's different.

Suppose you take care of Sally Sue tomorrow and send her a note at discharge. Nosy Nancy is discharged the same day and cared for by a different RN. They meet in the clinic and Sally Sue is telling Nancy how wonderful her RN was. (This sort of stuff happens every day in our population. If I had a buck for every time I've heard, "Guess who I saw in the clinic?" from another patient, I wouldn't worry about my military pay being enough for my retirement years. I'd be set.)

Nosy Nancy is horrified, and starts spouting HIPAA and privacy violations and rages about creep factor.

Sally Sue leaves the clinic with a different and new interpretation of your gesture. And since nothing's been put in writing, your boss uses this as an opportunity to hang you out to dry (it's been done, more times than I care to mention).

At the very least, send an email to management and cc yourself saying you just wanted to go back over your prior conversation regarding your notes, that management thinks it's a sweet gesture (or whatever the words were), and that it's condoned.

Then if someone tries to drop you in it, you've got proof that they once said otherwise. And if the email's ignored (because they recognize the 'trap'), you've got another answer: in the event of a complaint, you're on your own.

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helloberry,

Why do you think your hospital implemented the group thank you cards if not too boost patient satisfaction survey results?

Because hospital administration isn't known for its overwhelming abundance of common sense?

Just saying. :) I happen to agree with you but couldn't resist the jab.

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Specializes in Oncology, Palliative Care.

helloberry,

Why do you think your hospital implemented the group thank you cards if not too boost patient satisfaction survey results?

Lol you just don't like me, do you?

I don't think anyone thinks there's any sincerity even remotely attached to a card where staff just sign their names... That's why I'm choosing to do something different... Because I mean it.

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Lol you just don't like me, do you?

I don't think anyone thinks there's any sincerity even remotely attached to a card where staff just sign their names... That's why I'm choosing to do something different... Because I mean it.

It has nothing to do with us liking or not liking you and that's not the point. And I think plenty of people find sincerity in the smallest gesture for the very reasons you yourself have mentioned: it's a lost art in our electronic age when people think an email will suffice. Even bloody Hallmark has gone to the Webs.

It has everything to do with making sure you see what you're potentially opening yourself up to.

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Specializes in Oncology, Palliative Care.
I agree it's a lost art, but this isn't the forum to revive it in.

We all sent a patient a thank you note once when they bought lunch for the whole unit. A nice lunch - catered and everything. Fancy stuff! That's the decent thing to do.

But that's different.

Suppose you take care of Sally Sue tomorrow and send her a note at discharge. Nosy Nancy is discharged the same day and cared for by a different RN. They meet in the clinic and Sally Sue is telling Nancy how wonderful her RN was. (This sort of stuff happens every day in our population. If I had a buck for every time I've heard, "Guess who I saw in the clinic?" from another patient, I wouldn't worry about my military pay being enough for my retirement years. I'd be set.)

Nosy Nancy is horrified, and starts spouting HIPAA and privacy violations and rages about creep factor.

Sally Sue leaves the clinic with a different and new interpretation of your gesture. And since nothing's been put in writing, your boss uses this as an opportunity to hang you out to dry (it's been done, more times than I care to mention).

At the very least, send an email to management and cc yourself saying you just wanted to go back over your prior conversation regarding your notes, that management thinks it's a sweet gesture (or whatever the words were), and that it's condoned.

Then if someone tries to drop you in it, you've got proof that they once said otherwise. And if the email's ignored (because they recognize the 'trap'), you've got another answer: in the event of a complaint, you're on your own.

That's an incredibly extreme way to look at it. You have a fascinating imagination ;) I get that you're trying to show me the potential consequence, but come on....

As I said before, I have contacted the higher-ups for permission… & being that I'm no dumb-dumb, I did it through email, to which they both replied & were both complementary. My nurse manager even told me, through email, about an email she received from a patient saying how much he appreciated my note.

Nosey Nancy's nasty comments & strong desire to make other people miserable like her are things we all deal with on a daily basis, except now Sally Sue, who only has about 3 months to live, will get to enjoy one extra smile in her heart. Shame on Nosey Nancy for trying to take that a way from her... But hey, some people are just turds who insist on sucking all the fun out of everything. Such is life :)

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