Hero Cards.

We do "hero cards" where I work.  A hero card can be written by a patient, a co-worker, a boss, a doctor, etc.   It's just a way for someone to comment on what a good job you are doing and we read them at each staff meeting.  Sometimes I get a hero card, sometimes I don't.  

 

Yesterday, as I was reading the hero cards, there wasn't one for me.  I started to feel sad that maybe I wasn't doing a good job.  Maybe I needed to put a little more effort in my work and maybe I needed to really push myself to make my patient more happy and more comfortable.  I was being hard on myself and I was having a debbie-downer moment. 

 

It wasn't more than an hour later, as I was rounding on my patient, he mentioned what a great job I was doing.  He told me that I was so patient with him and I was the best nurse he was had in the entire week that he's been in the hospital.  He said that he could tell I really enjoyed my work and that he knew I was in the correct field. 

 

Well, that's better than any dang hero card.   It lifted me right back up.  No more debbie-downer.  Maybe I wasn't doing such a horrible job after all, or maybe this day I just had a little more "bounce in my step".   Whatever the case may be, I felt like a hero that day.   And it couldn't have come in a more perfect time.