Okay, we all know it's bad manners not to tip. Anyone who mixes your mojito, refills your garlic bread, answers your late-night room service request or drives you from Midtown to Soho deserves a little somethin' extra for the effort, right? Besides -- good tips totally equal good karma.

But what about the person who sorta does all those things at once? The person who mixes your medicine, refills your ice chips, answers your late-night call button request and drives (okay, wheels) you from Radiology to Inpatient Surgery -- all while tending to a million other requests from a million other patients at the same time? I mean, isn't nursing a kind of service job, too?

It never really occurred to me until today, when I went waaaay above and beyond the call of duty for one of the doctors I work with, and he offered me a tip. (And by "offered," I mean he threw it in my face and vanished into the night like some sketchy wannabe Batman -- but hey, a tip's a tip.)

I was totally shocked, but it got me thinking -- why NOT tip nurses? We could tack on a dotted line at the bottom of a bill where patients could add in some gratuity based on the service they received. Your pain was properly monitored and your nurse slipped you seconds on dessert? Twenty percent. Had to wait for hours before anyone brought you a blanket? Ten percent, tops. Or we could just set up a tip jar at the nurses' station and let people throw us a few bucks if they felt like it... although, knowing the kind of angry nut-jobs the ER tends to attract, we'd probably just wind up with a jar full of stool samples and hate mail.

Alright, guys, tell me I'm not alone on this. Do any of you work your butt off to serve other people, only to be overlooked in the tip department? Let's hear it!