That extra mile

When do you want to go that extra mile for a patient? Or more accurately I should say 'why' do you go that extra mile?

It's not a big deal, in fact it can be quite small, but doing that bit extra can be as simple as forking out 50 cents for the old fella in room 1 who hasn't got money for his morning paper.

It may involve rounding up four nurses on a busy morning to help one patient to the shower who's been bed sponged for the last month.

It may be phoning up a patients neighbor to make sure their pets get fed.

The list of extra things we do is not always part of the job description, but we do them anyway. We do them because it is not just right, we do them because it feels right.

But there's one thing I've noticed about the people for whom I do the extra things.
They're not demanding. They're often old. They're really nice to the people looking after them. They appreciate what we do for them.

Their only fault is that they sometimes suffer in silence because they don't want to be a burden.

They're not rude, obnoxious, demanding, threatening or abusive.

It pays to be nice. And we appreciate your appreciation. You see, we like to go that extra mile.