Thank you to the nurses who…
This week is National Nurses Week, so a lot of organizations and hospitals have been celebrating and publicly thanking nurses. As I am in the last two months of my residency, I have been thinking a lot about how much I am going to miss not only my co-residents and faculty, but also the amazing nurses I have had the privilege of working with these last 3 years. So, this post is in honor of National Nurses Week, and just in general, an immense thank-you to the countless nurses who were part of so many formative moments in my first three years as a physician.
Thank you to the nurses who were patient with me when I was learning, and to those who were so open to learning together.
There were many moments as an intern where my nurse knew before I did what the next steps were for my patients. Thank you to those nurses who taught me things with so much grace and patience, and to the nurses who were eager to learn with me as my knowledge and plans improved.
Thank you to the nurses who had my back, both as you were by my side and after I had left the room.
As a young appearing female physician, my patients often don’t recognize that I am their doctor or have some reservations about my age and assumed lack of experience. I have had so many nurses, both when I’m in the room, and after I’ve stepped out and they don’t know I can hear them, advocate for me and the high quality of care that I provide as their doctor. I can’t emphasize enough what that support means to me, and I am just so grateful to have trained in a place where we have each other’s backs like that.
Thank you to the nurses who saw me crying in a supply closet and gave me support, but also gave me the space I needed in those moments.
While thankfully these moments didn’t happen often, those were some of the most difficult moments of residency where I had a nurse walk in on me taking a moment to recollect myself. I know that in many ways you knew what I was feeling in that moment, so thank you for giving me space, kindness, and for keeping those moments between us.
Thank you to the nurses who had faith in me, who trusted my judgment, who treated me “like a doctor” from the second I came here.
Even though the imposter syndrome was so real at times, your support, your trust, played such a huge role in building my confidence and teaching me the kind of physician I wanted to be.
Thank you to the nurses who took the time to give me feedback. Compliments from you truly mean the world to me.
When an experienced nurse tells you that if they were ever coding they would want you running their code, or that they would trust you to care for their family, you absolutely never forget those validating moments. The opinion of our nurses isn’t always “measured”, but absolutely defines a huge part of what makes us successful as ER docs; so, thank you to those who shared positive feedback with me these last 3 years. You have no idea how badly I needed to hear those words during this residency journey.
Thank you to the nurses who show up each and every day and give our patients your best. Without you, our job would literally not be possible.
One of the things I love about Emergency Medicine is that we have the opportunity to work side by side with our team. Our job would absolutely not be possible without our nurses caring for our patients. No matter how humble we are as docs, it can be easy to forget that although we’re the ones “placing the orders”, absolutely nothing would ever happen without our nurses (and our techs, RTs, pharmacists, housekeeping, etc).
We are so lucky to work with you, and we hope you know how truly grateful we are for you.
To all of the amazing people I have worked with these first 3 years as a physician, there will never be enough words or time to express how grateful I am for you, so for now I’ll just leave it at: THANK YOU. I will never forget your kindness and your support.