Don't Forget the Nurses – Take Care of Them

If you have been hospitalized, your most crucial hospital personnel becomes the floor nurse and the nursing aides! Your doctors are essential, but floor nurses and aides control your moment to moment care.

Being a smart patient involves being a patient that the nurses and aides develop a rapport and a patient with whom they don't mind interacting. It seems a little unfair, we are in the hospital, very possibly we don't feel well, we might be in pain and we are probably unhappy about our situation. Yet, we must make an effort to reach out to the nurses and make the relationship a positive one for the nurses and aides.

We need to make sure that we do express to the nurses that we understand and appreciate their hard work. Being floor staff in a hospital isn't a fun job; it is hard; there are constant demands being made. Floor nurses and their aides are required to perform unpleasant tasks, like emptying bedpans and changing soiled linen. Their job also carries extreme responsibilities, like controlling your medications and quickly getting a doctor if you need additional medical assistance.

Being a hospital floor nurse or an aide is often a very unappreciated job. Still, it is pivotal to your comfort and perhaps your survival. So, it would help if you let your floor nurses and aides know that you and your family appreciate the challenging job they have every time they walk on to the floor.

You must make the floor nurses and aides see that you appreciate their hard work and that you know how difficult is their job. How do you do let the nurses know that you appreciate their work? The easiest way is to tell them. Please speak with your nurses and tell them how appreciative you are for their help and support. Tell them that you know how tough their job is and how amazed you are about how selflessly they are doing their job. When they do something for you or you ask them for something, make sure that you acknowledge their assistance, and say thank you.

If you are able, give them a gift, but remember, many hospitals do have rules about giving an individual employee a gift. Personal gifts can run a fowl with the hospital's HR department and get the nurse or aide in trouble. Suitable gifts include baked goods or treats like candy, fancy cookies, coffee, and pizza are usually acceptable per most hospital policies and appreciated by the nursing staff.

A good rule of thumb is that if they can eat it or read it, it's good!

Make sure day and night shift get their own! Night shift nurses often end up with the day's leftovers. Appreciate your nurses, it will make a big difference in the day to day care you receive while you are in the hospital.

Also, around the holidays, don't forget the nurses at your doctor's office and in the chemo-suite. Send them cards and perhaps a holiday gift package, they too work hard and can make your journey easier.