The Nurse Appreciation Thread

[phillybeth]

The hospice nurse and health aides that my grandmother had last year were the best. I don't know how they do it, forming caring relationships with people that they know are going to pass away in a relatively short period of time. They are just fantastic, caring, giving people. All through her illness they treated my grandmother with respect and dignity, always addresing her directly even in those last few horrible days when she was unconcious. When my grandmother passed, the nurse came back to the house to stay with us until the funeral director arrived, and she and the two home aides came to the funeral.

Hospice itself is fantastic, allowing people to pass at home, comfortable and cared for.

 

[nativetxn]

My mother is an RN, she practiced for 54 years until her severe illness forced her to quit last year.

She sustained physical injuries from drunks and people on drugs (broken thumb, broken rib) yet she never stopped being a nurse. She was a good one too.

I will tell her about this thread, I'll print it off and take it to her nursing home to read it to her and the nurses who are taking care of <i>her</i> now. I know she will appreciate the good thoughts.

Katholyn

 

[Princess Dot]

Thanks for the kind words. It can be a tough profession, but most of us went into it because we truly wanted to help people.

I left nursing for a while to go to law school, but after several years of practicing law, I returned to nursing. People thought I was crazy!

Its funny, when I say to people I'm a nurse on postpartum, most people smile and say oh how nice, that must be fun, etc.

But if I say I'm a lawyer, its funny how much more "respect" I seem to get from the person. Totally makes no sense. Sure there are the lawyer bashers around, but you are still somehow thought of differently when you say you are a lawyer as opposed to a nurse. To this day, whenever a doctor hears that I'm "the nurse that is a lawyer" all of a sudden I have gained more respect in their eyes. Not to say that there are not doctors who respect nurses for their exceptional nursing skills, but I just think its kind of funny. I even had a supervisor tell me while I was in law school that I was a better nurse now that I had been in law school!

I try to remember that when I am being hollered at by a doc for calling him at home for what he did not consider an "emergency" that there was a time when I had a private office, a wonderful secretary who did things for me, and I used to yell at my doctor clients who were being sued for malpractice!

Nursing is almost like a calling or a vocation, while being a lawyer was a job.

 

[JenBlaze]

*hugs to all the wonderful nurses*