Thank you profoundly, Nurses!  Nurses are vital!

You consistently show love and deliver vital care. You are the back bone of our complex medical system. You tirelessly and devotedly give of yourself, though conditions are not always what they should be.

You are appreciated. You work among both the needy patients and the brilliant doctors – this is a special capability that’s not to be taken for granted. The magic does not happen with you.

Hospital “Frequent Flyers” Know Nurses Are Vital

As one who has been in the hospital 10 times in the last 5 years, and made countless doctor office visits, I am a bit of a “nurse connoisseur”.  I know you come in all shapes and colors and sizes and orientations – it’s easy to love you all.  I know you have to work through good shifts and bad shifts balanced against your own good days and bad days. I know you have diverse varying skills, and you have applied them for my best possible outcomes.  You have helped me physically for the good, and you have shaped my outlook on life.

I am grateful for you, nurses, and my appreciation keeps growing.  I am proud to know nurses who have nothing to do with my care.  My wife is an exceptional nurse who works tirelessly and then, too often of late, comes home to deal with me – a whole other love story.

I spent a week of this month on the 8th Floor Central of Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, with serious complicated challenges.  Several brilliant caring doctors of various disciplines worked together to give me hope and understanding. Pulmonologist W. Bradley Fields finally gave me precious relief, after first examining me in the ER waiting room on a day when there was an unusual number of incoming patients.  Allergist Abdul H. Bahrainwala has consistently gone “above and beyond the call of duty” in providing me routine and acute care, including remarkable coordination over time and in this instance.

During the stay I enjoyed engaging the nurses, who completed this great Beaumont team. I was able to call them by name and thank them, and even know them a bit.

Please stay strong, dear nurses. We must fight for healthcare and workplace justice for all.  You deserve more and better support, and there should be fewer barriers keeping you from advancing your individual development.  

To call you Patriot Angels is to acknowledge that, in our increasingly complex and unsettled world,  you are among the important peoples who make up the very fabric of our society, who peacefully carry on for the good of us all.