Have you received memorable cards and gifts from patients and families that made your day? I have always loved to see the cards, flowers, etc that people will send after our patients go home. Especially I like a progress report that shows our caring made a difference!
We may feel like "just another provider" but when we get a little thanks or recognition, for example, "The best unit my mom has been on" etc., it just helps ease the pain of the trials we face and feeling unappreciated.
I know we aren't supposed to take gifts but my supervisor once made an exception. I was caring for a lady in a nursing home and she passed away. Her family gave me a special watch that was made with abelone shell, it was gorgeous. They just liked how I had cared for her in her last days.
This is something that says "thanks" to all of us - and from some of us, to you. It is written as if people with disabilities might have written it, but it seems to apply to any of our nursing experiences:
BEATITUDES FOR SPECIAL PEOPLE
BLESSED ARE YOU who take time to listen to difficult speech, for you
help us to know that if we persevere we can be understood.
BLESSED ARE YOU who walk with us in public places, and ignore the
stares of strangers, for in your friendship we feel good to be
ourselves.
BLESSED ARE YOU who never bid us to "hurry up" and, more blessed,
you who do not snatch our tasks from our hands to do them for us,
for often we need time rather than help.
BLESSED ARE YOU who stand beside us as we enter new and untried
ventures, for our unsureness will be outweighed by the times when we
surprise ourselves and you.
BLESSED ARE YOU who ask for our help and realize our giftedness, for
our greatest need is to be needed.
BLESSED ARE YOU who help us with the graciousness of Christ, for
often we need the help we cannot ask for.
BLESSED ARE YOU when, by all things, you assure us that what makes
us individuals is not our particular disability or difficulty but
our beautiful God-given person-hood which no handicapping condition
can confine.
REJOICE AND BE EXCEEDINGLY GLAD for your understanding and love have
opened doors for us to enjoy life to its full and you have helped us
A couple of weeks ago I recieved report on a woman who the other nurses were kinda scared of. The charge nurse that day whispered to me about how she had "satanic tatoos" and asked if I had seen them. She had a psychiatric history (very controled though) and was covered with tatoos and old scars where she used to cut herself. The tatoos were pagan in nature so while doing her assessment I asked her about them. She mentioned while talking about them that people so often misunderstand her. So I mentioned that I understood, being a former pagan myself and we had a very nice chat about spirituality.
When she was discharged later that day she explained that I was the best nurse she had the experience of having, gave me the warmest hug and even took my picture. I'm so glad to have gotten to know her and hope I happen to come across her again.
Another pt I had some time ago was broght in for sexual assault. She was having bad flashbacks and she would only trust me during her examinations. It was extremly hard for me to stand there and hold her hand while she was being examined, I had to try and help her out of her streaming flashbacks during this time. All I could do was cry with her.
Since this was the end of a second 16 hour shift in a row I was at my breaking point. I took care of the rest of my patients at the end of my shift and sat with her while she struggled with bouts of flashbacks and just cryed with her and held her until my relief came on (my relief was a crisis worker to sit with her since she was having such a hard time and was constantly trying to pull out her IV). I quickly gave report to the oncoming nurse and introduced her to the pt. On my way out the door she told me thank you.
I'll always remember her and will never again do a 2 days of 16 hour shifts.
well I have been stressed out lately, I started my job 4 months ago,as a new RN and wondered if I made the right decision on the floor I accepted a postion on. It is a neuro- floor and also a hospice floor. We do get med-surg patients those are our primary pts. Ok I had a hospice patient, which I dont usually do hospice only when the hospice nurses are off, anyway there had to be 20 family members in the room with the patient, and one by one wanted to know what was going on with their family member, pt daughter came out and I discussed medications with her and she was a nurse so it made it alot easier to talk to someone with a medical back ground. the pt was not doing well and respirations were very labored so I gave him dilaudid, every hour, wasnt cutting it so I called doctor and got 2mg dilaudid ordered gave it still his respirations were labored , I called md again got a morphine drip ordered I hung about half hour befor I was going to leave, and seemed to help he wasnt in so much distress, he could pass in comfortably....... the daughter I talked to all night gave me a hug and said thankyou for all you did. and in that one moment it gave me a sense of why I became a nurse in the first place, that thankyou will remain with me and mean more to me then any present or card.:monkeydance:
Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
... seemed to help he wasnt in so much distress, he could pass in comfortably....... the daughter I talked to all night gave me a hug and said thankyou for all you did. and in that one moment it gave me a sense of why I became a nurse in the first place, that thankyou will remain with me and mean more to me then any present or card.:monkeydance:
I just spent WAY too long reading this entire thread, and have to share a story of my own.
In February, on my very first day on my own off orientation as a new grad in the PICU, I took care of 2 little kiddos. One was a former preemie with a trach. I got in a fight with the attending about whether or not he should go home that day. He ended up staying, which he needed to do, and I ended up in tears in the break room. Over the months that followed, he spent lots of time time in and out of the hospital, coming in for "tuneups" due to all his respiratory issues. I got to be close with his parents and 5 other siblings, and would always take care of him when he was admitted.
This past August, the nurses at my hospital went on strike. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do- standing on the sidewalk outside of my hospital made me feel like I was abandoning my kiddos inside. During the month we walked the picket line, my little man was admitted again. Every day, his parents came outside to spend time with us on the picket line. They updated us on his progress, told us horror stories of replacement nurses who tried for hours to stick him for labs, and asked our advice about his condition. They knew that we knew their little guy better than any of the replacement nurses inside, and would take our advice back inside to tell the nurses caring for him what they should do. They even called the local newspaper and arranged a mini press conference right there on the sidewalk, stating in no uncertain terms that they loved and supported us and urging our hospital to come back to the bargaining table so their son could "have his real nurses back." I can't tell you how much it meant to us, after weeks of bad press and sleepless nights, to see something so positive printed about us in the paper.
In September, we found out that he had a massive cyst growing in his brain. It killed us- we had seen him make so much progress over the months, smiling and cooing around the air leak in his trach. But we watched him retreat into another world. He was withdrawn and unresponsive requiring 24-hour ventilation, and eventually his parents made the decision to take him off the vent and let his disease process take over. I had the privilege of taking care of him the last weekend he was with us. I will never forget the look on his dad's face when I walked into his room that day- he jumped out of his chair and hugged me. "Thank God it's you. Out of everyone, I'm so glad you have him this weekend." I sat with his parents, herded friends and family in and out of the room, and eventually barred the doors so his parents could spend time alone with him.
His parents waited until Monday to take him off the vent, and I was off that day. I came in to be with them, and as I came into the room, his dad said another thing that will stay with me forever. "This is how he know his nurses love him. They come in on their day off." We took him off the vent and started a morphine drip. I laid him in bed with his mum and tucked them in. She grabbed my hand and just said "Thank you."
I know that's a long story, but I hope it makes sense. That family's unwavering support of all of us was memorable. But the fact that they were so grateful and the fact that they wanted me there during the hardest time in their lives has been the biggest thank-you I have ever gotten.
Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
I know that's a long story, but I hope it makes sense. That family's unwavering support of all of us was memorable. But the fact that they were so grateful and the fact that they wanted me there during the hardest time in their lives has been the biggest thank-you I have ever gotten.
Wow, incredible story especially about their support during the strike! Any other parents could have been angry that you weren't in there taking care of the kids no matter what - they really "got it" as few seem to do.
Last Christmas I was working on a geriatric unit that had started taking acutely ill patients that were overflow from the medsurg floors. We usually got patients who had dementia, or some other behavior because our unit was a locked unit and staffed with a psychiatric nurse on each shift.
We got a lady in who had recently been diagnosed with an inoperable bowel CA, she was already obstructed, NPO with an NG tube. Her family came to be with her and the kids took turns staying with her overnight. She was a sweet lady, never complained or got angry, even knowing how near her end was. The family was also wonderful, and one particular son spent almost every hour with her right to the end.
I was working Christmas Day, and when the turkey was about to be served, I made sure that they knew there was enough for them to have a plate of food, if they desired, but none of them wanted to leave her side. About 1/2 hr later she passed away. The son who had spent the most time there seemed the most lost, I think he was the oldest and probably closest to her. He lingered on the unit longer than the rest, almost like he wasn't sure what to do next. I expressed my condolences and gave him a hug, we both had tears in our eyes. He told me that he wished he could take some of my blood and clone me, strange, but I knew what he meant.
This happened at a time and on a unit where I was really feeling like I didn't fit, and so feeling the appreciation of someone who I had cared for was really rewarding, I'll probably always remember it.
I got another thank you today from a patient. She kept telling me how wonderful I was to her, and how happy she was that I was her nurse for two days. Each time I went to her room, she always had some sort of compliment for me. I was totally flattered. She told me she had a lot of very nice people to take care of her, but I was the best. Anyways, she was feeling much better today and doctors gave orders to discharge her home around change of shift. Since there really was nothing that needed to be done for her medically, I did not even bother passing report about her onto the upcoming nurse. After I gave report on my other patients, I gave her the discharge instructions and all that. She knew it was time for me to leave and she gave me a vase of Orchids to bring home with me. And she told me she filled out this one form my floor has that allows patients to commend staff when they feel really good about the people who have taken care of them. I think whoever the form is about will get some sort of certificate. I don't know because I"m still relatively new to the hopsital. Man, it just makes my day to see how happy I could make a patient feel.
Gromit
821 Posts
Me too. I'm glad he had someone like you to care for him -it obviously touched him deeply.