I'm a math person, so it really bothers me when my manager asks us to do an additional task or duty without subtracting a current task or duty. The math doesn't add up.
Our current duties take up a full shift. If you add something more, something else needs to be eliminated.
For example:
When my manager says, "I'd like you to provide the patient with handwritten thank you cards. These cards will take about 2 minutes to write and distribute per patient." She should also say, "therefore, you no longer have to complete care plans for your patients, as those take about the same amount of time. From now on, I will write the care plans for you."
It is a personal touch. Pharmacists and housekeeping could write them but it would be meaningless to the patient since neither of them personally cared for the patient. Us, on the other hand, the patients remember, and would recognize the name on the card.
Are you unwell or just confused? Or are you just not a nurse? Allow me to explain: if the patients remember their nurses, then the patients should be sending their nurses a thank you card. Really, this is absurd. Nurses do not thank patients for being patients. It is truly insulting to propose such a thing.
I seriously find this weird. if I got a thank you card I would be like "umm...ok?"
I think it's supposed to be the other way around.
Seriously! I mean, I wouldn't expect cards from patients...but I actually sent flowers to one doctor and his staff (before I even dreamed of becoming a nurse) and always made a point to seek out those little comment boxes on other occasions. If I got a thank you card I'd be like....okaaay...
Added to task A that only takes 30 seconds per patient x5 (haha! only 5 patients!)
Plus task B from last month that only takes 15 seconds per patient x #patients
Plus task C from 3 weeks ago that only takes 10 minutes x #patients
Plus task D from 2 weeks ago that only takes 2 minutes x #patients
Plus task E from last week that only takes 3 minutes x #patients
Plus next week's task F that only takes 5 minutes x # patients
At some point the "only takes..." adds up. When EVERY week, heck, every shift, something that "only takes..." gets added, those little bits add up to a lot of time.
.
Right...and our breaks that *only take 30 minutes. I've heard that we're supposed to get two 15 minute breaks as well, but I think that's a myth.
Some of you are so funny - enjoyed most of the reaction on this thread. :)I will say as a L&D nurse we sent out birthday cards at 1 year to all the babies we delivered. Keeping in mind we are a rural hospital and only did about 100 deliveries a year. Also as hospice, we sign bereavement cards each week for hospice families. But this is done at a team meeting. But as a nurse on the floor . . .in a busy hospital . . . this is crazy.[/quote']I understand the bereavement card thing. I hate they took our packages for ED infant losses. But you prove a greater point, there are times a "Thank You" Card isn't appropriate. If its done as an afterthought, it becomes kind of "thoughtless."
I usually tell patients goodbye and if I really liked them then I'll spend a few minutes talking to them if I know I won't see them again...tell them I hope everything goes well when they get home..maybe give them an extra bandage that they'll need and you just can't find at the store, or a clean urinal so they don't have to transport the stinky one. I think that's way more appreciated than a card, but I guess I could stop doing that and just sign a card instead so the math will add up.
Those thank you cards cost money. Now don't tell me, "It's only pennies per card" at the same time you're complaining about staff using too many supplies that actually benefit patient care and only cost pennies each. At the same time management tells staff that incremental overtime adds up, we have to clock out on time, can't clock in a minute early, they tell us that "just a few minutes" here and there for more random tasks on the to do list shouldn't affect us? If incremental time adds up when it comes to the budget, incremental time adds up when it comes to how much we can do in a day.
I understand the bereavement card thing. I hate they took our packages for ED infant losses. But you prove a greater point, there are times a "Thank You" Card isn't appropriate. If its done as an afterthought, it becomes kind of "thoughtless."
I had a stupid manager once that couldn't understand why I insisted on throwing the thank you card away instead of putting it in the send pile for a kid that likely would die about the time the card arrived at their house. Shows just how much thought some people (in managment!) really are putting into the cards. But yeah, it's ME that should get out of nursing because I'm too lazy and whiny to sign a card.
Altered Thought Process R/T Customer Driven Healthcare AEB Stupid Priorities by Administration that defy logic. Now if I knew how to finish this care plan we could change the world!!!!:)
People want their nurses to be competent, caring, and really on the ball. They want them to be genuine. It's the personal one-on-one that matters most--when it is needed most. The TY card approach is just some kind of novelty thing, superficial extension of advertisement.
Do a great job and be real--especially when it matters most to pts and families. That IS what people remember. And when it has impacted them enough, they often will send their own TY/appreciation cards.
OK, a number don't; but there are those that do. And when they don't do that, they do remember those genuine moments. I do home care PT as well. The moms and dads tell me what they remember about this nurse or that nurse or this doc or that doc--both the good, bad, and the ugly.
But I think I made my point. A generic card will never say what being genuine and showing you really care will, period. End of story IMHO.
Sorry to have so many posts here, but it just dawned on me that this is like my mother standing there at discharge saying,"Now what do you say?"(with that look of "if you don't know what to say- you will get a reminder that you will never forget!")
It was fine as a Child to FORCE my "thank-you"s. But, as an educated adult I have fully developed the decision making skills to know when it's appropriate:)
I have learned one thing, some Administrations have too much time on their hands(some;))
BlueDevil,DNP, DNP, RN
1,158 Posts
Are you unwell or just confused? Or are you just not a nurse? Allow me to explain: if the patients remember their nurses, then the patients should be sending their nurses a thank you card. Really, this is absurd. Nurses do not thank patients for being patients. It is truly insulting to propose such a thing.