Thank You Hospital Staff!

I’m writing this as I sit in the hospital with Family Member. We got a call that Family Member was not doing well and was in the Emergency Department. So we packed up and drove 4 hours to the hospital.

After an operation and stint in ICU, Family Member is now on “the floor” (in a regular room). They are recovering from surgery and battling a nasty case of pneumonia.

What a staff! Every 12 hours, the staff changes and we have to check the whiteboard to find the name of the nurse, nurse in training, aide, and respiratory therapist.

And boy are they busy! We can hear beeping from the various monitors in each room and hear the staff buzzing back and forth between rooms.

Our kids were hospitalized a lot when they were little (thanks to asthma and pneumonia) but it's been 11 years since the last time they were admitted. And being here at Family Member's bedside is bringing back memories!

The staff here comes to check on Family Member quite often, and are quick to answer questions and assure Family Member that they are getting better.

Then they zip out to the next room and repeat. For 12 hours.

How do they stay on their feet that long?

It must be a blur of patients and their families. Patients being admitted to the hospital for a few days and then discharged. And another patient comes in to fill that bed.

I can tell the staff is tired. We thank them every time they come in the room and make small talk to learn more about them and their families. We thank them for keeping up with everything.

But how we can we REALLY thank them? Well, I like to have something they can SEE.

While Family Member was sleeping, we just left the hospital and found a popular sandwich shop and bakery. And then bought out the entire case of sugar cookies. I know there is a day shift and night shift, and we just wanted them to have a little something to munch on - and maybe lift their spirits!

We left the box of cookies with a note at the nurses' station and it didn’t take long before the nurse popped in the room.

She was animated and said she had already devoured a cookie! She said she was so surprised that we would do something like that.

Just then, the nursing student popped into the room and said the same thing.

I was hoping that this is commonplace for them, but I could tell by their surprised reaction that it wasn't.

I told them it wasn’t much, but I wanted to thank them for taking care of Family Member. I told them that I know they are busy, running from room to room. And that WE SEE THEM.

We see them put in a 12-hour shift as we sit at our loved one's bedside. We see them explaining things over and over again so Family Member can understand.

We see them ask Family Member if they need anything else. Then they ask if WE need anything.

We see them dash to the next room and help the next person.

We see them come back to our Family Member's room, again and again.

We see them working hard. And we appreciate them. And it’s not much, but maybe a box of cookies can help them get through the day!

Anyone else found a way to thank the hospital staff?