"Manners maketh the nurse"

Manners cost nothing. I understand you are tired, that you have worked a long and difficult 12 hour shift. That you want to go home to your bed. But having a go at a patient because they are in agony and have had the sheer audacity to ask you yet again for their medication, which they originally asked for well over an hour ago, is not conducive to the situation.

You are not in charge here. The patient is not your subordinate. You are both equals. A nurse is a patient's hands and legs when they cannot move. They are a comforter and soother when pain is out of control. Respect is earned, and works both ways.

When pain relief is asked for, from the perspective of the patient, the message, (and the nurse), often seems to vanish into the ether, never to be heard of again. If no one has appeared by the half hour mark, doubt creeps in. Have they forgotten? Are they doing it? Am I not due it yet? We only press our buzzers to find out what's going on, not to offend or upset you. That is after all why they are there.

To misquote a character from the film Kingsman, "Manners maketh the nurse". 

Hospital buzzer