Do even pediatric nurses get jaded?

I'm a PNP and yes, I get jaded at times.

Especially when I have a parent talking or playing with their iPhone during the exam, but who can't afford Tylenol to give their child. Or a sixteen year old cries like a baby and has to practically be run down to give her the gardisil vaccine. Or a 9-year-old throws a see-and-say at your head and the parent just shrugs.


Every job has its moments. You just have to have an idea of what you are willing to put up with.

And I would like to meet a peds nurse who doesn't SOMETIMES relish giving those vaccines to the bratty kids.

My job would probably be easier without parents. Some really don't know how to raise a kid, and no amount of teaching on my part seems to help.

But I would rather be a garbage collector than take care of adults 100% of the time. The only adult pt I have ever liked was my mama when she was sick.

Poop, pee and vomit just aren't as bad coming out of a 2 month old vs an 80 year old.

That is SO true!

Right now we are in late spring and thus moving away from the season of peds respiratory cases, and into the season of irresponsible teenager cases. Recently I was getting report from ER on yet another 14yr old with a near-lethal ETOH level, and the peds ER nurse told me how whenever they get drunk kids in the ER (every weekend in the spring & summer), they call the parents in and make THEM hold the puke bucket while their child vomits for hours. They figure the parents need a bit of a lesson too.

And recently I had yet another "suicide attempt"- more like "cry for attention from my boyfriend"- and anyway she ended up with low potassium for a short time. K was not compatible with her IV meds, & she was tolerating PO, so we gave it to her orally. I have to admit, as she gagged down those two monstrous K-Dur pills (I swear they are the biggest pills I've ever seen)- I thought "Maybe THIS will make her never want to swallow another pill again." :P
(Now don't get me wrong, there are plenty of serious and legitimate suicide attempts, but this was not one of them).

The parents can be very annoying. I might have a mom bless me out b/c I don't think their 15 year old with a fever of 99.8 needs to go to the emergency room. Then I'll have a child with a stiff neck, petichiae, and high fever and the mother (who is "educated") refuses to take her to the ed even though I tell her she might die. I have moms tell me they can't take their one year old's temp b/c "they won't let me".

It also gets very sad to know just how poorly so many children are taken care of. It can be heart breaking. BUT the once in a blue moon that the parents seem super grateful or you know for a fact you saved the child's life, makes it all worth it.