Just Say No to Nurse Angels

I just spent the morning at a table in the cafeteria in the hospital where I volunteer. I had post-it notes and pens for the staff and visitors to jot down a note of appreciation to the nursing staff and place it on a large white board on the wall–a “Gratitude Wall”. We volunteers will continue to do this between 12 and 2 p.m. today, Monday, until Friday May 12th for Nurses Week. Nurses even wrote notes of appreciation for their colleagues. I especially enjoyed hearing the patients say how grateful they were for nurses and the care and attention nurses gave to them and/or their family.
Since I retired from nursing, I generally ignored Nurses Week having experienced empty platitudes and silly gifts when I worked in the profession.. Seems things are changing as evidenced in my volunteer hospital and from the recent nursing blogs and articles written by nurses.
I am reblogging Josephine Ensign’s post “Just Say No to Nurse Angels.” I agree with her sentiments and only wish my book was published and included in her list of real books by “real nurses.”