Monday, October 6, 2008

If you start off having a bad day....

It can just take a moment to change it around.
I was frazzled the other day....behind, had a admit, day nurse kept me in report 1/2 hr past time I should have been done, had a hep drip PTT coming due soon(so I'd have to change the rate), etc....all at at start of shift.
I went in to see my one stable patient....and he asked for tylenol instead of vicodin...ok, sure. After getting those for him he said "you have a minute?" (seriously, at this moment, I wanted to say "not really, could it wait a bit?") But, I always say sure because they may not tell you what they wanted to earlier....
He says "I wanted you to know that you are the best nurse I've ever had. You really care about your patients. You always take the time to explain things to me, and you told me when you didn't know. The other nurses have been pushing that vicodin and I don't want it....nurses do a good job and people probably don't say that enough."
I almost wanted to go cry a little.....I told him thanks, and we proceeded to have a better night. Let me just say that I had a little more bounce when I left that room....so take the time to listen to your patients...they might be the ones giving you what you needed.

3 comments:

overactive-imagination said...

That's awesome. You are obviously a great nurse.

Scrubs said...

It's always encouraging when a patient stops to thank those in scrubs for helping them. Glad your day was uplifted!

Noel said...

Quite worthwhile information, thank you for the article.
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