u/IKnowAboutRayFinkle

First, THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU DO! 💜

I love all the techs I work with - they make my shifts so much better in lots of ways. I would honestly lose my mind without them.

My question for all you techs out there: what is the best way a nurse can show her appreciation?

I wish I could give each of my techs $100. Is giving everyone a $5 Dunkin or Starbucks gift card silly? Or should I give a bit larger of a gift to my more trusted techs? There are probably about 10 techs who bust their ass and really care about their job. These are the ones I trust completely. The rest are fine (and always essential) but they are a little burnt out if you know what I mean. So they are a little more lazy and clearly don’t care.

So: should I write cards to everyone or just a select few? I don’t want anyone to feel left out but I honestly would rather spend a bit more so that my “good” techs feel noticed and appreciated. I don’t necessarily want to reward the ones who constantly roll their eyes anytime they have to do anything…but maybe they need a little pick-me-up?

Open to your thoughts. Thank you!

Everything is so expensive now and I am an impulse shopper. I’m thankful for the ability to order my groceries and pick them up, which saves me time and also from straying from my list too far.

And Amazon is so convenient too (can sometimes be dangerous for me). I have found so many great deals on kids clothes and shoes through there.

I’m thankful that I have the TIME to spend researching prices and going to multiple stores in order to get what I need. Today I am picking up groceries from both Aldi and Walmart. And I was able to order some toiletries and 100% cotton kids clothes on Amazon for a decent price. I know this is such a luxury.

Thank you to all the grocery store employees, Amazon warehouse and deliver drivers! 💜

I absolutely don’t mean this in a callous way but it BOGGLES my mind when elderly people and/or their families are shocked when something goes wrong. Obviously no one wants to suddenly develop CHF or have a bad fall but do some people think they are going to live forever? The amount of people that come in with back pain and their xray simply shows degenerative changes and they are AGHAST that their body dare start to fail them. Sir, your body has been bipedal against gravity for 80 years…sometimes you might have aches and pains?

I know my perspective is skewed. And it’s really hard when you have a patient who is in that transition period of their life where they were completely independent and then one bad UTI hits and suddenly they’re in the hospital-rehab-nursing home loop. I honestly can’t imagine how that must feel for them, to have a sudden loss of independence. Or to have medical staff like me who treat you like you’re fragile when you were just gardening and volunteering at the library last week.

My grandpa was is hospice for a year a died a month ago. It was a sloooow decline and he was trucking along with a HR of 35-40 for way longer than I thought was possible. He was 89 and had an amazing life. My grandma had such a hard time accepting his diagnosis of bradycardia and that he would not be a good candidate for a pacemaker. “But WHY is his heart doing this? Can’t we fix it?” My grandma is 91, very intelligent and still is completely “with it” and very independent. I couldn’t understand why it was so hard for her to realize that this was the end.

I’m sure mostly elderly folks don’t spend their time contemplating their death and wondering what diseases they might end up with. We are all a little morbid in the ER and I forget most of the general public are not. We really don’t do a good job in this country with aging and death.