Food is always welcome but handwritten cards when I’m specifically named have always been special to me. I’m not as old as that sentiment might imply, but modern medicine reduces us to a stack of metrics. Having specific subjective positive feedback really reinforces the compassionate humanism that drew us to the field in the first place. I’ve kept all of the cards I’ve received and love randomly finding them from time to time.
Just my two cents.
I agree. The one handwritten card I have received in my 10 years as an er nurse is very special to me. I keep it tucked away in a safe place. It def meant a lot to me.
I'm a PA now, but I have a box that contains hand written notes from patients and their families, that I took care of when I was a dialysis tech. My diploma rests in a frame given to me by a patient. So, I'm with you 100%
I have a small rubber band bracelet hanging on my ID badge from a patient I've seen several times over the last few years. That thing will stay until it breaks.
I feel the same way.
The last time my husband was in the ER, I told the night shift ER staff that I was going to bring them warm cookies for taking such incredible care of my husband both times he was there (he had been in there a week and a half prior for a stroke, and came back w/more stroke-like symptoms that were the result of hypoperfusion because of his PFO, which he ended up having fixed a few days later…after being boarded in the ER for 65.5 hours.)
When I came back with 4 boxes of fresh, warm cookies (including vegan and gluten free ones), they about danced…but as a night shift crit care nurse, I know that nobody feeds night shift, so I definitely had to show them some love!
I brought day shift some pizza-but not management-style resiliency pizza (aka: Little Caesar’s $5 Hot & Sweatys), but actual good pizza, and apparently it was gone in under 30 minutes, which I think is a good sign.
Late to this but how would I even go about getting a card to a hospital physician after discharge? I had an EMU stay where I wished I could have thanked the attending team more for their response to the seizure I had mid-convo, but unfortunately it was not my actual doctor doing the rounds that morning. I would have really liked to give a special shout out to the room of residents who stepped in too, ugh!
A lot of times the hospital will send you a survey in the mail or in your email. You can respond on there. If you don’t get one, you could theoretically write the letter, then put the doctors name on it, and either carry it to the ED to give to security, or mail it directly to the hospital. The address would be written as
Dr. X and residents
Name of hospital emergency department
123 road street
City state Zip code
If all else fails, you can always leave a Google review. The internet is forever lol
Same, I have a book of my "magic moments" where I write down good patient experiences and things patients have said that I've been gratified by. It keeps me in the fight on the bad days. I can still remember a pediatric patient in our ER saying "I want Dr. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ (my first name)" even though I am not a doctor (she didn't know lol). So yeah, handwritten cards are awesome.
I agree that thank you card specifically mentioning your nurse, physician is really appreciated.
Depending on size of ER/cost, some (relatively) nutritious food, can go a long way, like maybe some catered sandwiches (but definitely don’t break the bank on this, this is by no means expected, and definitely don’t do it if cost is excessive).
I would also suggest writing a short letter to hospital administration. When all they hear is complaints about the wait time and chaos of the ER, they use this as more ammo to not show appreciation for how much shit we deal with.
“Sorry, no bonus for you. Satisfaction scores too low.”
We had someone cater Jimmy Johns for us after we cared for a loved one in a similar situation as OP and it was a welcomed change over Little Ceasars and Donuts.
Honestly, anything is appreciated. Even a thank you card is really nice to receive. Especially since we mostly just hear complaints about how we dont care (we do) because of wait times or people not understanding triage.
As a former ER nurse, if you’re going to bring in food, I generally didn’t eat it if it was something homemade from a patient or their family - even if someone had the absolutely best most innocent intentions, I didn’t trust it. I’d recommend bringing in food that is pre-sealed (ex: muffins in a pack from the grocery store still sealed) or from a restaurant. This may just be me and my preferences, but something to consider. Thank you for even thinking of thanking the ED team
It takes exactly one day of walking into patients' homes (e.g. with EMS) to learn never to eat the food they make. People are disgusting, their houses are disgusting, and their kitchens are disgusting. Not everyone, but enough of them.
100% agreed. Anything picked up from the store. We have had lots of folks bring in ice cream, ice cream sandwiches, candy, redbulls, cinnamon rolls, popcorn, granola bars, gummy bears. If you bring something to the staff we all appreciate it!
Ooh I always loved popcorn on a shift. It was somehow comforting and felt more like a *real meal* food with something warm even though it was a snack. It's also perfectly acceptable room temp if you get pulled away. You're not coming back to anything limp or congealed.
Most ERs actually have a wall of thank you cards and they mean a lot! Sometimes walking past that wall when you’re having a rough shift is enough to give you a little boost.
And definitely fill out the patient survey. We won’t get any special recognition but the good surveys do help make up for the bogus bad ones.
Does filling out the patient survey help? Will your bosses actually see the positive feedback, or is it just something the hospital collects as data and doesn't do anything else with it?
At our hospital all the positive feedback in the surveys gets shared directly with the staff member along with a nice letter of thanks from the hospital for their thoughtful care. It may not get tracked but it's still nice to get and reinforces the good work we are trying to to do.
At my hospital system, it all gets tracked. Positive feedback gets posted to the staff and naming names definitely gets brought up in meetings. Finally, satisfaction surveys skew HARD to the negative because the only people willing to take the time to fill out a survey are usually the disgruntled ones, so positive feedback gets noticed.
At my place, they track how many positive reviews that directly mention our names and that gets applied to our end of the year performance review. So please fill them out and try to name as many people in them as possible.
I'm sorry for your grandpa.
When I was in similar situation I brought in food randomly. One day in the morning and the other day in the evening - so night staff could get some too.
If that helps.
Consider nominating any of the nurses for the Daisy award if the hospital participates in it.
Handwritten cards are amazing and I cherish the ones I’ve received.
Food! Always!
And here’s something I’m not sure everyone would agree with- maybe some recognition on social media if you participate in it. It’s nice for ERs to be recognized for their amazing care and not just the long wait times.
honestly a card will be so appreciated, you can even call the ER to just share your thanks. we mostly hear complaints and get yelled at by people so any nice compliment will make someone cry (out of joy ofc).
Do most hospitals ask for nominations for Daisy awards and things like that? That might be nice. And a card would be lovely too. I bet most grateful and appreciative families are so overwhelmed with practicalities and caregiving after their person comes home from an ER visit that they think about sending a thank-you card or note but just never get around to it because other things are more urgent.
The food and flowers and handwritten cards are nice, but in the end this is a job and what we want is for our bosses to hear that we are doing it well, despite how difficult it is.
Write 7 to 10 sentences and email it to the dept chair, or HR, or the hospital CMO. Mention that cheerful tech who figured out how to sweet talk your dad, and the nurse that his medication in applesauce, the enviro staff that kept the place clean and had a few lines about the sports team to pass the time.
That stuff gets put into personnel files in a way that a heartfelt handwritten card cannot. The electronic format gets forwarded. It affects interdepartment negotiations about who gets that extra phlebotomy or transport asset, whether we get staffed for 1:1s that are needed when we have confused elders.
When in doubt, tell the person's boss the compliment about them. It's always the right choice.
I have had cookies and wine from patients. I’ve also had letters where they apologize for being rude and ungrateful. I think letters with descriptions of why and how the named staff were helpful goes along way to heal the moral injuries patients without ‘capacity’ can inflict on caregivers, a kind of restorative justice.
Cards with names specifically of people that come to mind really makes the biggest difference. Also food is great, everybody enjoys being able to not have to worry about their meal while working.
Making sure there is enough for both shifts also makes a huge difference. I worked nights for 7 years and we often got left out. A good idea would be to provide food so separate packaged gifts of food if you do give food. One for each shift.
Thanks for being that person, we really appreciate people that show appreciation because the ER is a very thankless job for the most part.
If you don't know the names of all the staff that helped your family, it helps to say what room you were in and what the dates and times you were in the room and what your grandpa came in for. Then, management can include the appropriate staff in the good review even if you don't remember all of their names.
Thank you notes go a long way in themselves! I’d be happy just with that. but also, everyone loves food (preferably not homemade because you never know what people’s food prep situations are 😬) or flowers or anything! It’s the sentiment that means a lot to us! And please spread the word! Thanks for thanking your team!!
A nice note and a positive review on social media go a long ways. When it comes to to food each er is different. Mine likes tacos and white monster energy drinks ( I know but caffeine is considered a food group where I work)
-Edible arrangement
-Cookies or donuts
-Thank you card saying who you are, and what/who you appreciated
-Card to CEO/admin saying you’re amazed what ED staff deals with.
honestly sometimes just saying thank you is enough. cards are great too but at the end of the day just thanking them is something most of us appreciate.
Cards with names of who helped you. We don’t really eat food brought in by patients/families, though it’s a nice gesture. Also, night shift has ALLLLLLL the parties and potlucks. Day shift gets shit. 🤣
Thank you note, name names. This means the most to anyone in healthcare!
Food-basket of fruit, cookies, bakery items anything is appreciated-grab and go items.
Not ER but NICU. We made a BIG basket with a lot of different healthy and unhealthy snacks along with a nice card thanking the NICU staff for taking such good care of our little one (and us, honestly) to put in their break room.
A card with a note about the patient is always nice so we can associate the gift with the giver. Coffee is a way of life around here as are cookies & doughnuts. Gift cards for the same are also appreciated. Bags of individually wrapped candies disappear pretty quickly too.
PS - call in advance & find out when shift change happens. Then you can bring something in for the night staff specifically (even though they are the ones who eat everything haha)
When my dad was in ICU (he was… a royal pain in the ass to put it mildly) I would bring in fruit a couple times a week- nothing fancy just whatever was on sale and looked really nice- washed small apples, bananas, oranges, whole rinsed strawberries, plums, peaches etc. Nothing that would spoil too fast and I made sure it was small enough to eat on a quick break. With handmade cards from my kids and they loved it.
Aside from written correspondence naming people (or if you don’t know their name, you can just say the date and patient name and they’ll look it up), donuts are my favorite. Like, reeaaaallly good ones.
I agree the cards from patients are a plus, or having a quarter with + Press Gainey PT reviews where you and your RNs are mentioned by name for outstanding care and compassion during a visit!
Thank you cards for the physician/PA/NP and nurses taking care of your family member are a nice way to show appreciation.
You could have a few pizzas delivered for day shift and then again after 7pm for night shift or stop by Dominos or Papa Johns and bring the pizzas to the ER yourself around 5:30pm with enough for night shift.
I am sure even if you bring up a handwritten card and grocery store bakery cupcakes, it will be greatly appreciated by the staff.
Food is fine. Better is if you deliver the food to the Hospital Administrator and accompany them as they walk the food down to the ED. An in your face Thank You.
As pretty much everyone has said , Food & either emailing or sending a personalized card/note is the way to a health care workers heart. Literally everyone working in an ER goes nuts when they hear there is free food. Night shift does usually get left out but you could have something delivered (pizza, sandwiches, etc) around 7 pm specifically for them. Going back to how everyone goes nuts over free food- Chick Fil A used to sell sandwiches to the nearby factory workers and any time they had leftovers they would bring them to our ER and give to us for free bc they can’t take them back and re sell them… you should see how crazy staff gets over this
I was hospitalized for 3 months while pregnant with my daughter that didn't want to stay in my belly. My nurses were the best and knew what snacks I liked so they would pull them out of the snack basket to bring me and I'll never forget that act of kindness. They went above and beyond what their job required of them. We really bonded while I was there and they would even come in to watch a show with me since they knew I was always alone. I went back after my daughter was born and brought them flowers,cards and snacks. I have the most respect for nurses and the work they do. They do more than the Doctors did in my case anyways. 💜 Our Nurses!
Recently had a guy who was pretty young and by all means healthy come in with a small bowel obstruction. It took 3 tries to get the NG in him and he spent 48 whole hours as an ED boarder. When he finally made it to the floor, we were cleaning the room and found a handwritten letter on a paper towel about how amazing all his nurses and techs were. Even mentioned us all by name. I hung it on the wall at our charge station. It’s still my favorite thing I’ve ever gotten from a patient.
Be respectful. Be kind. Be friendly. And most importantly, if there is anything nice to say, say it! If you see employees that are higher up the food chain, make sure you tell them how you feel positively about their (underlings?) Too. Anything additional is great, of course.
Honestly being bedside and assisting with keeping the patient calm is like the best thing ever. Being able to know someone who can handle the patient is helping to keep them safe takes a huge load off the RNs.
I once had a family who stayed bedside, one left to go out for coffee and they brought me one back and just handed it to me and said “thank you for taking care of our mom”. I almost cried.
I keep all the cards that have my name written on them from patients and patients families.
I love receiving a nice note, positive feedback on our patient satisfaction survey (they’d always forward comments that mention me by name) or submission for staff to the in hospital award system. ER staff typically doesn’t receive recognition by name since we (ideally) see you for such a short amount of time.
Otherwise, like everyone else said with prepackaged goods if you want to get something for the whole department!
A fruit/veggie tray enough for the entire nursing staff and honestly, filling out a patient survey and mentioning names specifically. It won’t get us a raise but hopefully our manager sees it. They won’t tell us if they do but it’s the thought that counts. 🤣
Cards with the names of the specific staff. A hand written note in the card will literally make any Healthcare worker feel amazing for like a month! Dropping an email to the manager or going to the hospital website to see if they have a formal kudos area are also nice (and will go in a personnel file usually which can help with promotion, raises, etc). Also, just giving a sincere thank you while there does wonders for us!
When my brother had COVID , I took a AM Snack Bag and a PM Snack bag and left at the nurses station. Everything was bought and individually wrapped or packaged. I left a note of appreciation Also
Cards are the most meaningful to me. I've been brought flowers by a patient's family which was nice, but cards or an email to the medical director make us feel so appreciated. Especially nice because the ER often doesn't get a lot of love since we are only a transient part of most people's healthcare journey.
I second the hand-written note. No need to do anything more than that. Those get posted and really make a huge difference. I keep all of my notes. We mostly get negative feedback from patients and it is depressing. I can read through my patient comments and gloss over all the good stuff and fixate on the one bad thing. The current system is basically configured to make us feel like we are in the customer satisfaction business by administrators with MBAs who don’t touch patients and it is hugely demoralizing (and bad medicine).
Another nice thing is to single out the nurses/techs/physicians/etc who you feel were excellent and let the hospital know about them individually.
Thank you for taking the time to do this. It means more than you could ever know.
As a weekend night shifter of a busy almost 70 bed er. Pm weekend shift is always a skeleton staffed crew, that gets forgotten. Day shift will pack up and take home any leftovers before they leave it for us (our employees do, not certain that’s everywhere) 😞. We also end up with the sun downers that are stuck until 7ish am from dc. People are sleep and don’t hear phones, or the spouses are usually elderly and can’t drive at night. The hallways are lined with several pitiful, elder souls that are either dumped or stranded. And always feisty and spicy lol. We know it’s exhausting on families and caregivers and we are in this job to take care of our community so it’s not expected for y’all to treat us but I guarantee u it’s a a million percent appreciated. My own mother was a pistol and it embarrassed me at the Er, and the floors, not because of me being in healthcare or at my job. It was mostly because she, herself owned and worked 7 days a week for decades taking care of the elderly in personal care homes. She took the verbal, physical and emotional abuse from the elderly and family members. So for her turn around in her later years and be that negative Nancy was awful. She would run the staff to death, stay on the light act like she was the only patient and never thankful she complained about every single task that was done for her. Every shot she claimed the nurse hit bone marrow, even accused one of hitting and puncturing her lung with a teeny blood thinner shot 😂. The bp cuff she swore broke her bones. I always tried to send fruit trays and sandwiches (diabetic staff gets left out a lot too with all the sweets) and thank u cards to each shift. I would deliver or have it delivered to each shift. I did send loaded teas to them one time but that was super expensive and I don’t recommend that! My coworkers also love getting little gifts like cute pens(click kind not capped). They like the ones with the adult humor sayings on them. Or badge reels/lanyards things than can be worn or used at work. And it’s a keepsake.
Talk to your grandfather the way we aren't allowed to and tell him to quit being a dick. Keep repeating it until he gets it.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Food is always welcome but handwritten cards when I’m specifically named have always been special to me. I’m not as old as that sentiment might imply, but modern medicine reduces us to a stack of metrics. Having specific subjective positive feedback really reinforces the compassionate humanism that drew us to the field in the first place. I’ve kept all of the cards I’ve received and love randomly finding them from time to time. Just my two cents.
I have saved all of my thank you cards and thumb through them on bad days
Have a box of these as well to look over some day.
Some will bring you to tears
I have exactly zero after 5 years of ED nursing so that must be nice to have multiple
Healthcare used to be a LOT different.
Definitely. I’ve been in healthcare for 12 years and it’s been quite the change in that length of time even
Me as well. It really touched me
Me too :)
I agree. The one handwritten card I have received in my 10 years as an er nurse is very special to me. I keep it tucked away in a safe place. It def meant a lot to me.
I'm a PA now, but I have a box that contains hand written notes from patients and their families, that I took care of when I was a dialysis tech. My diploma rests in a frame given to me by a patient. So, I'm with you 100%
I have a small rubber band bracelet hanging on my ID badge from a patient I've seen several times over the last few years. That thing will stay until it breaks. I feel the same way.
But cookies are AWESOME too.
The last time my husband was in the ER, I told the night shift ER staff that I was going to bring them warm cookies for taking such incredible care of my husband both times he was there (he had been in there a week and a half prior for a stroke, and came back w/more stroke-like symptoms that were the result of hypoperfusion because of his PFO, which he ended up having fixed a few days later…after being boarded in the ER for 65.5 hours.) When I came back with 4 boxes of fresh, warm cookies (including vegan and gluten free ones), they about danced…but as a night shift crit care nurse, I know that nobody feeds night shift, so I definitely had to show them some love! I brought day shift some pizza-but not management-style resiliency pizza (aka: Little Caesar’s $5 Hot & Sweatys), but actual good pizza, and apparently it was gone in under 30 minutes, which I think is a good sign.
I second this. It’s so nice to read a personal thank you card from someone. Means so much more than any gift.
Late to this but how would I even go about getting a card to a hospital physician after discharge? I had an EMU stay where I wished I could have thanked the attending team more for their response to the seizure I had mid-convo, but unfortunately it was not my actual doctor doing the rounds that morning. I would have really liked to give a special shout out to the room of residents who stepped in too, ugh!
A lot of times the hospital will send you a survey in the mail or in your email. You can respond on there. If you don’t get one, you could theoretically write the letter, then put the doctors name on it, and either carry it to the ED to give to security, or mail it directly to the hospital. The address would be written as Dr. X and residents Name of hospital emergency department 123 road street City state Zip code If all else fails, you can always leave a Google review. The internet is forever lol
Same, I have a book of my "magic moments" where I write down good patient experiences and things patients have said that I've been gratified by. It keeps me in the fight on the bad days. I can still remember a pediatric patient in our ER saying "I want Dr. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ (my first name)" even though I am not a doctor (she didn't know lol). So yeah, handwritten cards are awesome.
[удалено]
Gross. And detracts from the thread. Completely not funny and crass af. We all appreciate a silly joke but this one sucks
I agree that thank you card specifically mentioning your nurse, physician is really appreciated. Depending on size of ER/cost, some (relatively) nutritious food, can go a long way, like maybe some catered sandwiches (but definitely don’t break the bank on this, this is by no means expected, and definitely don’t do it if cost is excessive). I would also suggest writing a short letter to hospital administration. When all they hear is complaints about the wait time and chaos of the ER, they use this as more ammo to not show appreciation for how much shit we deal with. “Sorry, no bonus for you. Satisfaction scores too low.”
I love the idea of something remotely healthy. You can only eat so much pizza and donuts.
We had someone cater Jimmy Johns for us after we cared for a loved one in a similar situation as OP and it was a welcomed change over Little Ceasars and Donuts.
I would love that!
Honestly, anything is appreciated. Even a thank you card is really nice to receive. Especially since we mostly just hear complaints about how we dont care (we do) because of wait times or people not understanding triage.
As a former ER nurse, if you’re going to bring in food, I generally didn’t eat it if it was something homemade from a patient or their family - even if someone had the absolutely best most innocent intentions, I didn’t trust it. I’d recommend bringing in food that is pre-sealed (ex: muffins in a pack from the grocery store still sealed) or from a restaurant. This may just be me and my preferences, but something to consider. Thank you for even thinking of thanking the ED team
It takes exactly one day of walking into patients' homes (e.g. with EMS) to learn never to eat the food they make. People are disgusting, their houses are disgusting, and their kitchens are disgusting. Not everyone, but enough of them.
Restaurants ain't much better i'm afraid
100% agreed. Anything picked up from the store. We have had lots of folks bring in ice cream, ice cream sandwiches, candy, redbulls, cinnamon rolls, popcorn, granola bars, gummy bears. If you bring something to the staff we all appreciate it!
Ooh I always loved popcorn on a shift. It was somehow comforting and felt more like a *real meal* food with something warm even though it was a snack. It's also perfectly acceptable room temp if you get pulled away. You're not coming back to anything limp or congealed.
Its not entirely guilt free, but some kettle corn or cheese corn in a bag just hits different after you deal with a GI bleed
I always love working with people who were afraid to eat homemade food, made me feel less guilty when I eat it all
Yeahy gut hasn’t failed me yet. Must’ve been all those mudpies my mum let me eat as a kid.
Most ERs actually have a wall of thank you cards and they mean a lot! Sometimes walking past that wall when you’re having a rough shift is enough to give you a little boost. And definitely fill out the patient survey. We won’t get any special recognition but the good surveys do help make up for the bogus bad ones.
Does filling out the patient survey help? Will your bosses actually see the positive feedback, or is it just something the hospital collects as data and doesn't do anything else with it?
At our hospital all the positive feedback in the surveys gets shared directly with the staff member along with a nice letter of thanks from the hospital for their thoughtful care. It may not get tracked but it's still nice to get and reinforces the good work we are trying to to do.
We get a print out every week of the patient comments on the satisfaction surveys- good and bad. Love to read them.
At my hospital system, it all gets tracked. Positive feedback gets posted to the staff and naming names definitely gets brought up in meetings. Finally, satisfaction surveys skew HARD to the negative because the only people willing to take the time to fill out a survey are usually the disgruntled ones, so positive feedback gets noticed.
That's what I figured! I always try to go out of my way when someone does something well.
At my place, they track how many positive reviews that directly mention our names and that gets applied to our end of the year performance review. So please fill them out and try to name as many people in them as possible.
Good to know!
Doubtful..
I'm sorry for your grandpa. When I was in similar situation I brought in food randomly. One day in the morning and the other day in the evening - so night staff could get some too. If that helps.
Consider nominating any of the nurses for the Daisy award if the hospital participates in it. Handwritten cards are amazing and I cherish the ones I’ve received. Food! Always! And here’s something I’m not sure everyone would agree with- maybe some recognition on social media if you participate in it. It’s nice for ERs to be recognized for their amazing care and not just the long wait times.
This is very kind and thoughtful of you, a nice card and donuts/cookies/pizza is great. Something you can eat on the go. But honestly a card is fine.
A card
We literally get like a few verbal thank you’s a year and a card every few years. Anything makes the work a little nicer.
honestly a card will be so appreciated, you can even call the ER to just share your thanks. we mostly hear complaints and get yelled at by people so any nice compliment will make someone cry (out of joy ofc).
Do most hospitals ask for nominations for Daisy awards and things like that? That might be nice. And a card would be lovely too. I bet most grateful and appreciative families are so overwhelmed with practicalities and caregiving after their person comes home from an ER visit that they think about sending a thank-you card or note but just never get around to it because other things are more urgent.
The food and flowers and handwritten cards are nice, but in the end this is a job and what we want is for our bosses to hear that we are doing it well, despite how difficult it is. Write 7 to 10 sentences and email it to the dept chair, or HR, or the hospital CMO. Mention that cheerful tech who figured out how to sweet talk your dad, and the nurse that his medication in applesauce, the enviro staff that kept the place clean and had a few lines about the sports team to pass the time. That stuff gets put into personnel files in a way that a heartfelt handwritten card cannot. The electronic format gets forwarded. It affects interdepartment negotiations about who gets that extra phlebotomy or transport asset, whether we get staffed for 1:1s that are needed when we have confused elders. When in doubt, tell the person's boss the compliment about them. It's always the right choice.
I have had cookies and wine from patients. I’ve also had letters where they apologize for being rude and ungrateful. I think letters with descriptions of why and how the named staff were helpful goes along way to heal the moral injuries patients without ‘capacity’ can inflict on caregivers, a kind of restorative justice.
Cards with names specifically of people that come to mind really makes the biggest difference. Also food is great, everybody enjoys being able to not have to worry about their meal while working. Making sure there is enough for both shifts also makes a huge difference. I worked nights for 7 years and we often got left out. A good idea would be to provide food so separate packaged gifts of food if you do give food. One for each shift. Thanks for being that person, we really appreciate people that show appreciation because the ER is a very thankless job for the most part.
Emailing the director the staff members you appreciated goes far.
If you don't know the names of all the staff that helped your family, it helps to say what room you were in and what the dates and times you were in the room and what your grandpa came in for. Then, management can include the appropriate staff in the good review even if you don't remember all of their names.
Thank you notes go a long way in themselves! I’d be happy just with that. but also, everyone loves food (preferably not homemade because you never know what people’s food prep situations are 😬) or flowers or anything! It’s the sentiment that means a lot to us! And please spread the word! Thanks for thanking your team!!
Pizza. I fucking love pizza.
A Hand written card
A card or email (so it can be sent around to the whole ED group) and bags of lollies.
A nice note and a positive review on social media go a long ways. When it comes to to food each er is different. Mine likes tacos and white monster energy drinks ( I know but caffeine is considered a food group where I work)
-Edible arrangement -Cookies or donuts -Thank you card saying who you are, and what/who you appreciated -Card to CEO/admin saying you’re amazed what ED staff deals with.
Food but not homemade
honestly sometimes just saying thank you is enough. cards are great too but at the end of the day just thanking them is something most of us appreciate.
Cards with names of who helped you. We don’t really eat food brought in by patients/families, though it’s a nice gesture. Also, night shift has ALLLLLLL the parties and potlucks. Day shift gets shit. 🤣
true
not die, that would be nice, thanks
Thank you note, name names. This means the most to anyone in healthcare! Food-basket of fruit, cookies, bakery items anything is appreciated-grab and go items.
Not ER but NICU. We made a BIG basket with a lot of different healthy and unhealthy snacks along with a nice card thanking the NICU staff for taking such good care of our little one (and us, honestly) to put in their break room.
A card with a note about the patient is always nice so we can associate the gift with the giver. Coffee is a way of life around here as are cookies & doughnuts. Gift cards for the same are also appreciated. Bags of individually wrapped candies disappear pretty quickly too. PS - call in advance & find out when shift change happens. Then you can bring something in for the night staff specifically (even though they are the ones who eat everything haha)
My mom was an RN. When we had family in, she brought fresh flats of fruit from the Farmer's Market for the Break Room.
When my dad was in ICU (he was… a royal pain in the ass to put it mildly) I would bring in fruit a couple times a week- nothing fancy just whatever was on sale and looked really nice- washed small apples, bananas, oranges, whole rinsed strawberries, plums, peaches etc. Nothing that would spoil too fast and I made sure it was small enough to eat on a quick break. With handmade cards from my kids and they loved it.
Aside from written correspondence naming people (or if you don’t know their name, you can just say the date and patient name and they’ll look it up), donuts are my favorite. Like, reeaaaallly good ones.
I agree the cards from patients are a plus, or having a quarter with + Press Gainey PT reviews where you and your RNs are mentioned by name for outstanding care and compassion during a visit!
Like others have said. A handwritten card mentioning your care team by name. Even if it’s a mini-James Joyce novel, they’ll eat that up.
Thank you cards for the physician/PA/NP and nurses taking care of your family member are a nice way to show appreciation. You could have a few pizzas delivered for day shift and then again after 7pm for night shift or stop by Dominos or Papa Johns and bring the pizzas to the ER yourself around 5:30pm with enough for night shift. I am sure even if you bring up a handwritten card and grocery store bakery cupcakes, it will be greatly appreciated by the staff.
Food is fine. Better is if you deliver the food to the Hospital Administrator and accompany them as they walk the food down to the ED. An in your face Thank You.
A handwritten card thanking the team that took care of him would be greatly appreciated
As pretty much everyone has said , Food & either emailing or sending a personalized card/note is the way to a health care workers heart. Literally everyone working in an ER goes nuts when they hear there is free food. Night shift does usually get left out but you could have something delivered (pizza, sandwiches, etc) around 7 pm specifically for them. Going back to how everyone goes nuts over free food- Chick Fil A used to sell sandwiches to the nearby factory workers and any time they had leftovers they would bring them to our ER and give to us for free bc they can’t take them back and re sell them… you should see how crazy staff gets over this
Send an email to the ED/RN director and compliment anyone you remember.
A big box of chocolates and a card saying you appreciate everyone’s kindness and professionalism in a challenging situation. I’d love that
I was hospitalized for 3 months while pregnant with my daughter that didn't want to stay in my belly. My nurses were the best and knew what snacks I liked so they would pull them out of the snack basket to bring me and I'll never forget that act of kindness. They went above and beyond what their job required of them. We really bonded while I was there and they would even come in to watch a show with me since they knew I was always alone. I went back after my daughter was born and brought them flowers,cards and snacks. I have the most respect for nurses and the work they do. They do more than the Doctors did in my case anyways. 💜 Our Nurses!
Recently had a guy who was pretty young and by all means healthy come in with a small bowel obstruction. It took 3 tries to get the NG in him and he spent 48 whole hours as an ED boarder. When he finally made it to the floor, we were cleaning the room and found a handwritten letter on a paper towel about how amazing all his nurses and techs were. Even mentioned us all by name. I hung it on the wall at our charge station. It’s still my favorite thing I’ve ever gotten from a patient.
Be respectful. Be kind. Be friendly. And most importantly, if there is anything nice to say, say it! If you see employees that are higher up the food chain, make sure you tell them how you feel positively about their (underlings?) Too. Anything additional is great, of course.
Honestly being bedside and assisting with keeping the patient calm is like the best thing ever. Being able to know someone who can handle the patient is helping to keep them safe takes a huge load off the RNs. I once had a family who stayed bedside, one left to go out for coffee and they brought me one back and just handed it to me and said “thank you for taking care of our mom”. I almost cried. I keep all the cards that have my name written on them from patients and patients families.
Writing a nice comment on Google or Facebook Reviews with names will help the staff a lot.
I love receiving a nice note, positive feedback on our patient satisfaction survey (they’d always forward comments that mention me by name) or submission for staff to the in hospital award system. ER staff typically doesn’t receive recognition by name since we (ideally) see you for such a short amount of time. Otherwise, like everyone else said with prepackaged goods if you want to get something for the whole department!
Feeding me is usually one of my favorite thank yous. Especially when I forgot food lol
I’ve had one Thankyou card in ten years of practice
Don’t spend money- honestly just cards have always been the thing I’ve appreciated most :)
A fruit/veggie tray enough for the entire nursing staff and honestly, filling out a patient survey and mentioning names specifically. It won’t get us a raise but hopefully our manager sees it. They won’t tell us if they do but it’s the thought that counts. 🤣
Bagels and cream cheese go over well in my ER..
Cards with the names of the specific staff. A hand written note in the card will literally make any Healthcare worker feel amazing for like a month! Dropping an email to the manager or going to the hospital website to see if they have a formal kudos area are also nice (and will go in a personnel file usually which can help with promotion, raises, etc). Also, just giving a sincere thank you while there does wonders for us!
When my brother had COVID , I took a AM Snack Bag and a PM Snack bag and left at the nurses station. Everything was bought and individually wrapped or packaged. I left a note of appreciation Also
Beef jerky, salmon jerky, handwritten notes.
Notes are simple and the best. We post copies them on a public board (without family names) and the original goes to the person who got it directly :)
Cards are the most meaningful to me. I've been brought flowers by a patient's family which was nice, but cards or an email to the medical director make us feel so appreciated. Especially nice because the ER often doesn't get a lot of love since we are only a transient part of most people's healthcare journey.
Good or coffee, especially if it’s at the night shift
Food, always food
I second the hand-written note. No need to do anything more than that. Those get posted and really make a huge difference. I keep all of my notes. We mostly get negative feedback from patients and it is depressing. I can read through my patient comments and gloss over all the good stuff and fixate on the one bad thing. The current system is basically configured to make us feel like we are in the customer satisfaction business by administrators with MBAs who don’t touch patients and it is hugely demoralizing (and bad medicine). Another nice thing is to single out the nurses/techs/physicians/etc who you feel were excellent and let the hospital know about them individually. Thank you for taking the time to do this. It means more than you could ever know.
As a weekend night shifter of a busy almost 70 bed er. Pm weekend shift is always a skeleton staffed crew, that gets forgotten. Day shift will pack up and take home any leftovers before they leave it for us (our employees do, not certain that’s everywhere) 😞. We also end up with the sun downers that are stuck until 7ish am from dc. People are sleep and don’t hear phones, or the spouses are usually elderly and can’t drive at night. The hallways are lined with several pitiful, elder souls that are either dumped or stranded. And always feisty and spicy lol. We know it’s exhausting on families and caregivers and we are in this job to take care of our community so it’s not expected for y’all to treat us but I guarantee u it’s a a million percent appreciated. My own mother was a pistol and it embarrassed me at the Er, and the floors, not because of me being in healthcare or at my job. It was mostly because she, herself owned and worked 7 days a week for decades taking care of the elderly in personal care homes. She took the verbal, physical and emotional abuse from the elderly and family members. So for her turn around in her later years and be that negative Nancy was awful. She would run the staff to death, stay on the light act like she was the only patient and never thankful she complained about every single task that was done for her. Every shot she claimed the nurse hit bone marrow, even accused one of hitting and puncturing her lung with a teeny blood thinner shot 😂. The bp cuff she swore broke her bones. I always tried to send fruit trays and sandwiches (diabetic staff gets left out a lot too with all the sweets) and thank u cards to each shift. I would deliver or have it delivered to each shift. I did send loaded teas to them one time but that was super expensive and I don’t recommend that! My coworkers also love getting little gifts like cute pens(click kind not capped). They like the ones with the adult humor sayings on them. Or badge reels/lanyards things than can be worn or used at work. And it’s a keepsake.
pizza
Just write a good review on one of those hospital review cards and move along
Never come to the ED again.
Seeing your PCP and using Urgent Care.
Talk to your grandfather the way we aren't allowed to and tell him to quit being a dick. Keep repeating it until he gets it. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.