Advice appreciated dealing w parents -long

[teegeo]

I have been a pedi nurse about 18 months and have been recognized by parents in our surveys and thanked many times as being a caring nurse. I have never had one complaint until now. I had a family with a newborn admitted with fever unknown origin and were awaiting on blood cultures. Introduced myself in morning and parents said they were leaving to go home and shower and would be back. Okay great when did he last eat see ya later. The baby cried and cried, the PCA and I fed, changed, and rocked as much as either of us could with our patient load. I called the parents after lunch and first said baby fine but just crying is there any tricks to calm him down? She said he likes to be held, I explained very nicely I will rock him (instead of taking my lunch ) but we just don't have the staff to stay with him. She said she would be in soon, two hours later she comes back. She seemed nice enough to me, I chatted with her and her older son while giving some Amp and shortly they left again without telling me they were leaving. Baby slept checked on him a few times, PCA took vitals, etc. Next day I get a call from VP of nursing!! Family said I was the worst nurse, wanted me fired, and report me to board of nursing. They rigged the door and said I never checked on the baby, meds were not given correctly because I didn't do it like the nurse before, blah, blah. VP was very nice just wanted my side. She said she told the family if unhappy with care suggested someone stay with the baby. I guess they had every excuse why one of them could not of course neither one of them works(sorry.. just a little vent). Anyways, I hung up and cried and two days later it still really bothers me. Any advice how to put this incident behind me?

Thanks,

Teena

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

It sounds like they had some unrealistic expectations for care of their little one. A lot of parents have no understanding of the realities of staff shortages, prioritizing and doing less with more, or the fact that there is always more than one right way to do things. And perhaps there's an element of guilt there too about not staying with him for whatever reason, although they probably wouldn't recognize it as such. You know you aren't a bad nurse, you have countless other families' accolades, including some in writing, to prove it. This family didn't provide the VP with any concrete proof of negligent care, just their opinions, and it sounds like they didn't document their concerns, so it's likely there wasn't any way for them to back them up. We all know that opinions are like belly buttons (polite wording, not my first inclination!), everybody has one but no two are exactly alike. I'd take their complaint with a grain of salt and move on. You can't make everyone happy, you can only do your job.

[kessadawn, BSN, RN]

please don't let the opinion of one family bother you as much as it already has! let your record speak for itself, you have made a lot of parents feel good about the care that their child got while hospitalized, and that's something to be proud of!

i am proud of the care i give, and it feels good when families reinforce their appreciation. but you can't please every family, and that family doesn't sound like the were around enough to be an accurate judge of your nursing care as it is. maybe this was their way of projecting the guilt they felt for not being there longer for their infant, whether the reasons for doing so were legit or not.

be proud of the job you do! apparently many of your patients' families are!

(sorry for any typos, long day!:>)