Fed up with Stupid Parents

Nurses General Nursing

Published

:oornt: AAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Guys I'm sorry this is so long, but...OK I left the hospitals for a clinic to be able to spend more time with my kids and come on lets face it because I thought the patients or parents would be easier to deal with. As you all know I am a Pediatric nurse and have come to a point where I am sick and tired of some of these parents/guardians stupidity. Parents now a days seem to be so clueless about the simplest of things to care for their child. I'm thinking of writing a book titled "Call Your Momma for that Advise", where I will list all of the things that you really shouldn't bother your Pediatricians office with. Then you have the idiots that think that you have to take what ever crap they throw at you and continue to see them as if nothing ever happen. Especially those people that have their children on Medicaid. Now I'm not saying that all people that are on Medicaid are off the wall, there was a time that even I had to ask for help from the state for my child's health insurance. But is it me or are the Medicaid patients the worst? We really don't get paid JACK for the visits , but are expected by the parents to drop everything to do as they need or want.

For example when we have a kid that we haven't seen for a year and all of a sudden the mother calls hysterically demanding an appt for a WCC within the next two weeks or there Medicaid gets cut off........... excuse me you sat on your a**, decided that even though the well visits and dental visits are totally free you just didn't want to bring them in. And don't even give me the my car is broken down or I just don't have the money for gas excuse..... FOR A YEAR..... and anyway Medicaid pays for free transportation as well. So DO NOT sit on the phone and curse me out because you don't give a damn about your kids health and vaccines. Sorry too bad won't schedule you and you now get a formal discharge letter from our practice (which includes all the other doctors within our same health system).

What set me off the edge was today I got a call from my super asking me to fax him whatever documentation I had in a patients chart the we discharge earlier this year because the grandmother decided she was gonna be stupid and put in a formal complaint to Medicaid about being discharged without reason. She called our after hours PA and went on a rant rage about how my Doctor didn't know what she was doing and would never return to us again, so then again we just made official and discharged her.:devil:

Am I just evil or should I really try to get back to the good nurse that loved a challenge like an ignorant parent and thow myself into teaching? Don't get me wrong folks I love what I do, but some of the parents that are not willing to follow instructions or question everything that the doctor says really get to me sometimes. I even caught myself telling one dad once, "so you saw the doctor and don't agree with her diagnosis of a "cold", so now your calling to request antibiotics because you diagnosed your child as having an ear/throat infection... really and where did you get your medical doctors degree from... where did you do your Pediatric Internship?" LOL I was lucky that the dad fell so dumb after seeing the patient again and it still being a cold that he didn't complain. I haven't let my mouth run like that again!

Am I the only one in here like this?

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
he deserved it- he's always a jerk when he comes in because he is some big shot at some major corporation

I doubt being a corporate executive made him a jerk. Jerks come in all classes and income levels.

Ok, I have a feeling that TxPediNurse doesn't go to parent websites and when they vent about a bad doctor's visit tell them they need to be more understanding of the staff. When I worked fast food, I had annoying customers, not saying that ALL fast food customers are annoying, not saying that a particular behavior would annoy me everyday, not even saying that I haven't been an annoying fast food customer. But if I vent, it's because I've had a bad day.

She's NOT talking about YOU. Nurses are not angels. Pediatric nurses aren't angels. Sometimes they have a crappy day. Give the poor girl a break. She had a bad day. She ranted. She didn't rant about YOU. She may have generalized, but most people do when they rant. When I'm mad at my husband, I sometimes rant about men in general. It's not a blanket statement of what I think of ALL men, it's just a rant that I'm mad at my husband. GIVE THE GIRL A BREAK.

Specializes in ICU, PICU, School Nursing, Case Mgt.
If you feel like you should put pt down because of their class, GET OUT OF THE MEDICAL FIELD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even when I become a nurse I will always be an advicate for all of my pt's no mater what!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh an pt eduacation is apart of your job, so help them understand...

Dear nurse 12b,

Oh really?

THis is one of my favorite responses...UNTIL YOU HAVE BEEN THERE AND DONE THAT-PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT (in such a manner)!

I worked PICU for 8 years, Peds for 2 and Pedi ER for 1 year. Believe me, the OP knows about what she speaks.

Yes, I experienced just about all of the situations that she and all the other posters described.

I would like you to revisit this statement in about 11 years of working in the field, specifically all areas of Peds and after witnessing all of the travesty and answering the same ridiculous and inappropriate questions for the 100th time (to the same parent, such as,"no, you can not feed your DD'd, Trached, Vent dependant, G-Tubed, Seizure disordered 10 year old Cheesecake by mouth again....as this is why he has aspiration pneumonia and we are suctioning thick secreations of mucus mixed with cheesecake and his sats are 45% on fio2 of 75%......!!...and as he has been this way since birth because he was a 23 week gestation..because you did not get any prenatal care and you chose to smoke crack which sent you into premature labor---you should already know this...it's nothing NEW"----yes, that really happened as did 100's of other equally repugnant stories)

So, please, all of you who find anything harsh about the OP's comment or mine....it really is unfair to make broad statement like that unless you have paid the dues.

Also, the OP was not slamming anyone's station in life...nor was she not advocating for her patients...reread the post....IT WAS A VENT!

s :twocents::twocents::twocents::twocents::twocents: (more than two cents----inflation)

I sure hope that you were typing very fast and that was the reason for all of the misspelled words....if not, you may want to take a few English courses before Nursing school, it may help you.

I don't medicate fevers in children (I do, however, medicate pain and discomfort that interferes with their ability to rest). We still don't keep children's tylenol in the house (when I do medicate, I far prefer children's motrin).

I hope when you say children you aren't including infants. I have no tolerance for parents who don't medicate fevers and by the time they come to the ER we're now dealing with seizures instead of just a fever.

I do agree that a fever in a child (non-infant) is entirely unremarkable, and agree that, by and large, medicating for comfort is fine.

Out of curiosity, what do not like about Tylenol? I, personally, have found tylenol to be a better pain reliever.

Specializes in LTC/Skilled Care/Rehab.

klone, I'm the same way. I don't give my kids tylenol every time their temperature goes above 99. I keep some motrin in the house but I usually throw it away because it expires before I use it. I don't believe everything the nurse or doctor says. And I also delay vaccinations. Luckily none of the doctors have been that uptight about that. Oh....and I was on Medicaid when my daughter was little ;)

I don't think the OP was out of line at all. I'm not a nurse yet, but after dealing with the public, I can't imagine the frustration working with difficult parents brings. If only people used common sense, which is sadly not very common anymore.

Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

For anyone fed up with parents of peds patients I'd suggest spending some time working in pediatric psychiatry. At least at my hospital most of these families are fraught with mental illness, poverty and neglect at best. Little Susie hasn't been to the dentist in 6 years but now all the sudden since she is on our dime Mom is demanding she see an orthodontist. If it makes those of you who got prickly over the medicaid comments feel any better the families with state funded insurance get much longer stays approved than the family where Mom or Dad has what would be considered "good insurance" through their employer.

For anyone fed up with parents of peds patients I'd suggest spending some time working in pediatric psychiatry.

Well now, that's just a hateful thing to wish on anyone! :p

#1 reason I hate teenage GI patients is that half the time, they've got more psych problems than GI problems. (I have no data to prove that, just my personal experience, please do not ask me to cite a professional journal to defend this claim. And if you or someone you love had a tummy ache between the ages of 12 and 20 and are mentally just fine, then you are part of the half that isn't psych.)

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
I hope when you say children you aren't including infants. I have no tolerance for parents who don't medicate fevers and by the time they come to the ER we're now dealing with seizures instead of just a fever.

I do agree that a fever in a child (non-infant) is entirely unremarkable, and agree that, by and large, medicating for comfort is fine.

Out of curiosity, what do not like about Tylenol? I, personally, have found tylenol to be a better pain reliever.

I've never had an infant younger than about 8 months that developed a fever. I consider myself highly sensible and am sure that in the event of a very sick infant, I would respond sensibly.

All of my kiddos, in their first year, developed pretty high teething fevers (102ish). I generally didn't medicate for those fevers, when I knew the itiology.

As far as Tylenol goes, I just don't like the hepatotoxicity of it. I think that ibuprofen, generally speaking, has a wider margin of error.

my only question is, why the big deal about not having a thermometer? Once my kids were older than toddlers, I rarely took their temps. A high fever is a high fever. If it's high, I don't care what the actual number is. If it's a low grade fever, what does knowing the actual number do? Nothing.

If not having (or using) a thermometer for your kids is the sign of bad or lax parenting, then include me in that group. Just don't tell my (now adult) kids.

Specializes in ICU, PICU, School Nursing, Case Mgt.
Nurse 12b

It your posting a joke? I don't think you're ever going to get accepted into a nursing program until you work on your spelling. Please take a deep breath and go away from this forum. Nurses should feel safe here to vent without moralizing from people who have no idea what we do.

Dear Subee,

You go girl! My feelings exactly.

s:yeah:

Specializes in PACU.
Oh my... when I worked in Ped's clinic, I had 3 exam rooms and I kept a box of kleenex in each room. We would go through soooo many of them because people would just TAKE them! stick them in the diaper bag and go! Finally had to start hiding them :)

But then we would always get these soap samples to hand out, nice soap like Dove... but really, how do you ask a family "want soap?" without them getting offended? We would just sit them out on the counter for them to take, but no one would take those!!! Just the kleenex! Oh and my bright green stapler that I loved...

OMG! I so know what your talking about! This happens all the time in the office that I work at too! It makes me so mad. Other patients/parents will ask do you have kleenex, and when I tell them I'm sorry we don't have any because some people like to steal them. And I swear they don't believe me! Grrrr...:eek:

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