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
Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
I've received many thank-yous over the years, but one small comment stands out in my mind. I just came on shift and was assigned to a pt I'd cared for all week. I asked the pt how he was doing that evening. He replied "I'm doing much better just knowing that you're my nurse tonight." He then smiled such a sweet smile.
I'll never forget those sweet and simple words, and the sincere look of gratitude on his face.
When I started as a Intern at my current workplace, I was unable to enroll in work study as it was the end of the semester, so I couldn't do "nurse stuff". Well, my NM told me that I could just do a month or so training with the CNAs and that it would probably be good for me cause I could get to where I knew the unit, the people, etc before becoming an SNI.
Well, my very first day there (by-the-way, I loved doing the CNA stuff....they're pretty great to work with), I had this patient who would be probably going home at the end of the day. She and her husband had both lost their 55 year old son to cancer a couple months before and they still weren't "back to normal" as they put it. Well, they were both really sweet, but when the CNA I was training with asked (outside the door) how long the nursing program took me, I swear to god, the woman flipped!
She got up as quick as she could (after having knee sx) and gave me the biggest hug a 90lb person can give and just went on and one about how GREAT it was that I was going to be a nurse and how she thinks I'll be fantastic, etc, etc. It was really nice to hear, but she really took me off guard! Since I was in the CNA role, I offered to wheel her down when she was ready to go home and she said that I'd be hearing from her soon........I have a pseudo-stalker!! :lol2:
Recently I got quite a few presents from my patients. One told me I was her favorite nurse, and before she got discharged she gave me a vase of orchids. It was so pretty! And another patient kept requesting me to be his nurse on the days I'm working. His family gave me two presents and told the assistant nursing manager how much they enjoyed having me as a nurse.
Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
She got up as quick as she could (after having knee sx) and gave me the biggest hug a 90lb person can give and just went on and one about how GREAT it was that I was going to be a nurse and how she thinks I'll be fantastic, etc, etc. It was really nice to hear, but she really took me off guard! Since I was in the CNA role, I offered to wheel her down when she was ready to go home and she said that I'd be hearing from her soon........I have a pseudo-stalker!! :lol2:
Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
Recently I got quite a few presents from my patients. One told me I was her favorite nurse, and before she got discharged she gave me a vase of orchids. It was so pretty! And another patient kept requesting me to be his nurse on the days I'm working. His family gave me two presents and told the assistant nursing manager how much they enjoyed having me as a nurse.
That's so cool when they don't just tell US, they tell the boss too!
The most memorable honor a patient has ever bestowed on me... in my first year of nursing I was taking care of an elderly woman in rehab after a hip replacement. I came in on the night shift and always found her on first rounds in the most uncomfortable positions. She just couldn't get the hang of the bed controls. I made it a point to spend a few extra minutes with her every night getting her repositioned and while I did it, I sang her a quiet song. She was asleep every night before I left the room. About a year later, I was applying for a new apartment. I met a woman in the rental office who noticed the name of the hospital where I worked. She told me that her sisiter had been in that same hospital and she always talked about "an angel that worked the night shift who sang her to sleep every night." She told her sister that if it hadn't been for that, she never would have made it through rehab. Even though she didn't tell me directly how it had affected her, I felt like those few minutes each night really made a difference in her life.
The most memorable honor a patient has ever bestowed on me... in my first year of nursing I was taking care of an elderly woman in rehab after a hip replacement. I came in on the night shift and always found her on first rounds in the most uncomfortable positions. She just couldn't get the hang of the bed controls. I made it a point to spend a few extra minutes with her every night getting her repositioned and while I did it, I sang her a quiet song. She was asleep every night before I left the room. About a year later, I was applying for a new apartment. I met a woman in the rental office who noticed the name of the hospital where I worked. She told me that her sisiter had been in that same hospital and she always talked about "an angel that worked the night shift who sang her to sleep every night." She told her sister that if it hadn't been for that, she never would have made it through rehab. Even though she didn't tell me directly how it had affected her, I felt like those few minutes each night really made a difference in her life.
that wee bit extra, and you really made a difference in someone's life. what a feeling eh? You really are a great nurse,take pride in yourself and your practice babe! Hope if I ever need looked after, it will be with someone like you!:flowersfo
Specializes in Lactation Ed, Pp, MS, Hospice, Agency.
The instructors that helped the most were the ones who admitted that they were fallible, yet how serious nursing was.
This falls true even in todays world! I was lucky enough when I was a student to have had an instructor who wasn't afraid tell me that even licensed nurses are not perfect. This made me feel loads better. Especially when I knew I had screwed up (even if it was minor).
Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
This falls true even in todays world! I was lucky enough when I was a student to have had an instructor who wasn't afraid tell me that even licensed nurses are not perfect. This made me feel loads better. Especially when I knew I had screwed up (even if it was minor).
Not exactly a "thank you," but something that made me feel loved!
I admitted a little kiddo with RSV the other day. His parents were from out of state, just here visiting their parents. Great family, understandably concerned, and feeling very much like fish out of water in a strange place.
Yesterday I walked past his room, and the mom called me in to tell me a story. Turns out the day after I admitted him (when I wasn't working), he was choking on his formula. She smiled at me as she sheepishly confessed that mine was the only name she could think of and that she had just started yelling it out her door because she wanted me to come help him. "I knew you weren't working, but I just wanted you to come fix my little guy!"
Reading all the post here makes me emotional..The best memorable thank you i had was when a patient of mine told my other colleagues as "shes very kind, caring and etc..."and the best thing was when his son and other friends comes to visit that patient she would repeatedly said the same words..Its such a nice thing hear when patient appreciated your hard work. A sincere verbal thank you's is enough...
Since I was in the CNA role, I offered to wheel her down when she was ready to go home and she said that I'd be hearing from her soon........I have a pseudo-stalker!! 
:lol2:
that wee bit extra, and you really made a difference in someone's life. what a feeling eh? You really are a great nurse,take pride in yourself and your practice babe! Hope if I ever need looked after, it will be with someone like you!:flowersfo
Liddle Noodnik
3,789 Posts
You're :welcome: hee hee