Remember two things saying goodbye

[Kaisu]

So I started with the "is there anything else I can do for you" before saying goodbye with pretty remarkable results. No-one sent me on another errand, but the responses I got were extremely gratifying; along the lines of "no thank you so much - you've been so nice" and variations thereof. Left me with a lot of warm fuzzys. Thank you to the OP. A simple thing like that has added greatly to my job satisfaction.

[EMTCOWGIRL]

This has become my favorite part of patient care. One of the first things to go when you become ill is often your dignity. You become very accustomed to foregoing your privacy and being treated like a number. So i am always careful to treat them with dignity and respect. Anytime I transport a patient to a VA Hospital I thank them for their service to our country and the sacrifice they made to do so. From the moment I introduce myself I call them by name and am careful to treat the patient not the illness. I agree that it is important to say goodbye to the patient in whatever manner is appropriate for their case. Making a difference in someone's life even if its only for a short time is very rewarding.

[MongoMedic]

I dunno why this needs to be pointed out. It should be common courtesy to say goodbye and wish your pat. well...

Simple within this profession people tend to get into a place with this job, that they become a little jaded and out of focus of what it is truly about. We can do all kinds of fancy things to our patients while they are in our care. However, if we get into a place within ourselves to where we don't see the personal side of this business we sometimes need just a little reminder of that to get us back on track. One of my former Directors of EMS always said "we can teach a monkey to intubate", but teaching us manners, respect, and courtesy require a foundation within that person, that we are teaching, from the begining. Even a foundation could use a little re-leveling every now and again.

This is always one of the first things that I try to instill in any new medic, student, or rider that is on my truck. This truly is one of my "soap-box" topics. I truly believe from the time we get the call to the time that patient care is fully turned over, no matter who (or in some cases what) they are, our patients deserve all the respect and courtesy that we can give them.

MongoMedic

[Bieber]

My "goodbyes" generally consist of having the patient sign the consent form (if appropriate for their condition) and I tell them what it is their signing (written consent for treatment/transport, consent to receive the bill, acknowledgement that I've explained HIPAA to them "it says we're not gonna go talking to anyone about your protected medical information except for people who have a need to know, such as the hospital"), and then I ask them if they have any questions for me. Most of the time they don't, but I feel like it's important to give them the opportunity to ask me whatever they feel I haven't covered already, and there's been a few times where they've asked me some questions. I try to give them an idea of what they can expect from the hospital in advance. Once we have them transferred over to the bed and I'm done giving the report I usually tell them to "take care" or "get to feeling better".

Great video, I like the message in it and I'm going to look at how I terminate care and see if there's anything more I could do for my patients. The "is there anything more I could do for you" I think is a great thing to add in there, even if you're busy. I work in a pretty busy system, but as far as I'm concerned, when I'm on a call, that patient is going to get the exact same care from me that they would under any circumstance--whether we're busy, slow, whatever. They deserve the best care from both a medical and a human standpoint, and that should never be compromised due to operational issues.

Patients are humans, not numbers.

P.S. CrapMagnet, I'm glad that it's worked out so well for you! I'm definitely going to give it a shot now!

[Chief1C]

I add a good luck or a take care in to every patient, provided the patient wasn't a violent prick.