Encouragement

I had a very sweet old lady as a patient tonight. Mundane chief complaint, not a big deal, got discharged in a reasonable amount of time. Except that she didn't get discharged right away. I was busy, and in the room next to her was a patient who started his interaction with me by saing "you my nurse? Go get me some motherfucking juice" and ended his interaction screaming down the hallway that I was a bitch for not getting him four blankets instead of the three I did bring. There wasn't much interaction after that because I called security after telling him I would no longer be taking care of him as I refused to cater to his ignorant behavior, and since he was incapable of treating me with respect I would not be coming into his room again. I let the charge nurse know, and she passed along that the patient had burned pretty much every bridge he had there which is why he was given to me in the first place - ah, the joys of being a traveler.

Anyway, that patient got escorted out by security and I went to discharge my sweet old lady. I apologized for the delay in getting her paperwork, and she cut me off mid-sentence to tell me that she appreciated all we did for her and to not worry about a thing. I thanked her and went to move along in the discharge lecture when she stopped me again. "No, honey, I don't think you really heard me," she said. "Thank you, for all that you do. It means the world to people like us. Don't listen to those assholes who don't treat you with respect. I see how hard you're working and you're doing a damn fine job of it. Keep it up."

I really needed to hear that today. It's just an extra bonus that her sailor mouth is worse than mine.