Nurse Weak?

Nursing is not for everyone. It takes a very strong, intelligent, and compassionate person to take on the ills of the world with passion and purpose and work to maintain the health and well-being of the planet. No wonder we’re exhausted at the end of the day! ~Donna Wilk Cardillo

Joking around, I posted on Facebook that in honor of Nurses Week, I was taking the whole week off. I was met with a ton of positive feedback about my nursing and that idea—people love nurses and when they think about it, are very thankful for us all!

We’re not getting big bonus checks this year for Nurses Week. In fact, I would say that my hospital does very little to show appreciation for nurses. One year I received a pair of scissors from administration, another year a coffee mug, and last year they forgot about us night people and served a snack-box lunch to the day staff (they later made it up to us with coupons to the cafeteria).

Kinda weak, huh? I’m not sure what the expectation is on my part—like what would make the week really special? Maybe that bonus on the paycheck? Or an extra day of PTO? Money seems to be a tangible way to celebrate and is a lot more useful than the pen-slash-highlighter I got in year one.

I’m always appreciative of magazines like Scrubs who point out how amazing nurses really are—we get more accolades from the media than from our employers, it seems.

So, I can’t say I’m overly excited about celebrating Nurses Week. My patients’ thanks will suffice; really, they appreciate me and make my job enjoyable, fulfilling and yes, even celebratory!