10 Things Patients Don’t Know About Nurses

10 Things Patients Don’t Know About Nurses

1. We are so dedicated to our profession that we don’t always leave our cares for you at the door; we take you home with us. Just when you thought no one else cares we care for you and the whole family and many times put our families on the back burner.
2. From a nurse, “how are you doing?” Isn’t a polite greeting…and “OK ” isn’t a complete answer. Telling me the truth, that you are nauseated/scared/in pain …doesn’t make you a wimp or a burden. It enables me to properly care for you.
3. We give up our own families to care for you and your family and wouldn’t change that fact for anything
4. That we sacrifice sleep, eating, and time at home with our families to ensure that YOU’RE comfortable, nurtured, fed and back home with YOUR family, and that YOUR quality of life is at its peak.
5. That we have feelings too and what happens at work, don’t always stay at work! Just because we may not show our emotions such as sadness at the time of a tragedy doesn’t mean we don’t cry or care about you and your family feelings. Respect us and stop being abusive.
6. We get upset when we see you come back with the same problem over and over again, that could have been prevented. You make us think that there was something more we could have done to convince you to make better decisions.
7. When I’m not in your room I’m not just sitting around eating bon bons. I am running around trying to make sure the 100 things that have to be sorted out behind the scenes don’t affect you. I’m tracking down meds from pharmacy, trying to find the RT, the phlebotomist, the CNA, the doctor, the paperwork that should have been in your chart, the orders that should have been written to prep you for surgery, supplies that we suddenly run out of and are needed etc. And I do this for multiple patients (no you aren’t my only patient) all shift long.
8. We are human beings too. I’m somebody’s son or daughter, somebody’s mother and somebody’s wife. So before talking consider all those aspect. You get exactly what you plant.
9. That we have to somehow make our hearts, brains, and hands all work together in difficult and emotional situations. Sometimes we are the cooks, waitress, maintenance, housekeeping, laundry and everything else at once and still manage to function.
10. We are NOT personal servants.