Flu Season

Vent away...

But w/ our first one, even w/ dh and I having medical backgrounds, knowing and giving the correct antipyretic dosing, we would still end up in the ED for viral infections c/o high fever.

What burned my but* was being told he was not febrile because the tympanic therm. read nomal - but just feeling his head you could feel he was burning up! I would tell staff that you could not get an accurate reading w/ that type of therm. but would be told that was "impossible." Hah!

I always carried alternative therm. w/ me for accurate readings... temp was 104.1 F. (w/ tyl and motrin).

So... there is my vent... still gets me going 10 yrs later.

SJ

I have to agree. Although I do not have kids, I am sure I would be scared to death if my child were sick. Parents hear stories of kids having seizures because of fever...if they have no medical background (heck, even if they do), I am sure they want their child to better. At least they realize their method (the wrong dosage of meds) isn't working. Maybe they're afraid to give their child too much medicine. You said they're all bundled in blankets...when was the last time you had a fever? Last time I had one (August), I was wearing sweats, under the blankets with the heating blanket on, shivering my butt off. They (parents) know their child is shivering like crazy, saying their cold. They want a comfortable child.

Good job for you with the excellent discharge teaching though. Now they will hopefully know the right dose to give, to call their primary MD, and what to do when it's appropriate. I understand the frustration though, although I get more irked when it's the 45 yo person who didn't get to the clinic on time. Urgent care anyone? -andrea

i had parents rush their young one into the er in the middle of the night because they felt warm.

the hard part in dealing with these parents is convincing them that they do not have to be seen before the guy with chest pain.

keep smiling, pal. that's all we can do. :chuckle

i'm sorry, but does anyone else get tired of 3:00 a.m. e.d. visits for cc of "fever" in 1-3 year old patients? not to mention that they're usually bundled up in layers of clothes, in a blanket and the parents gave one dose of tylenol (not the correct dose i might add) 8 hours ago and one time only if they gave anything at all. then you ask how high the temperature has been and the parent places their hand on the childs head and says "i don't know, i don't have a thermometer." then they wait 3 hours in the e.d., and all we do is give them the correct dose of tylenol or motrin, give them some pedialyte, and listen to the doc say, "viral illness, follow up with your family physician." you try and explaine disease process, routine fever control measures, blah, blah, blah. i understand that alot of these families can't afford to go to the clinic, are young and scared because of this first child, or just flat out don't comprehend what needs to be done. i'm compassionate, and calmly give adequate discharge instructions but it gets so old! thanks for letting me vent.[/i]

Best are the ones who don't medicate the child at home because they want us to see how high the fever was. No matter how many times you tell people that it won't change the treatment(assuming they have athermometer and we know the child actually had a fever!) They believe it will get the child seen faster-of course sometimes this works-when they have a seizure in triage!

Hang in there and remember-we can educate them one person at a time! :)

:icon_roll :icon_roll

i'm sorry, but does anyone else get tired of 3:00 a.m. e.d. visits for cc of "fever" in 1-3 year old patients? not to mention that they're usually bundled up in layers of clothes, in a blanket and the parents gave one dose of tylenol (not the correct dose i might add) 8 hours ago and one time only if they gave anything at all. then you ask how high the temperature has been and the parent places their hand on the childs head and says "i don't know, i don't have a thermometer." then they wait 3 hours in the e.d., and all we do is give them the correct dose of tylenol or motrin, give them some pedialyte, and listen to the doc say, "viral illness, follow up with your family physician." you try and explaine disease process, routine fever control measures, blah, blah, blah. i understand that alot of these families can't afford to go to the clinic, are young and scared because of this first child, or just flat out don't comprehend what needs to be done. i'm compassionate, and calmly give adequate discharge instructions but it gets so old! thanks for letting me vent.

i soooo hear ya! and we have doctors that order full septic work-ups for every kid with a fever (presumably 'cause they were sued once when a kid with a 99.8 fever ended up getting something serious). as for educating parents about fever control, i'm afraid it rarely works. how many times do we see those same parents back the next night at 2:00 am with yet another cc "fever?"

my fav cc: "crying."

Or the equally infuriating cc: he won't go to sleep!!!

i'm sorry, but does anyone else get tired of 3:00 a.m. e.d. visits for cc of "fever" in 1-3 year old patients? not to mention that they're usually bundled up in layers of clothes, in a blanket and the parents gave one dose of tylenol (not the correct dose i might add) 8 hours ago and one time only if they gave anything at all. then you ask how high the temperature has been and the parent places their hand on the childs head and says "i don't know, i don't have a thermometer." then they wait 3 hours in the e.d., and all we do is give them the correct dose of tylenol or motrin, give them some pedialyte, and listen to the doc say, "viral illness, follow up with your family physician." you try and explaine disease process, routine fever control measures, blah, blah, blah. i understand that alot of these families can't afford to go to the clinic, are young and scared because of this first child, or just flat out don't comprehend what needs to be done. i'm compassionate, and calmly give adequate discharge instructions but it gets so old! thanks for letting me vent.

not a nurse yet so maybe i'll be singing a different tune in about 2 years, but as a parent of a 4 yr old (only child) i can get a bit freaked out by high fevers. particularly after seeing my friends 2 yr old go into a seizure and end up with a concussion due to a sudden spike in temp. i guess what i am saying is please try to have patience with us, we truly don't know all that you know and fevers and vomiting can be scary for us when they affect our little ones. especially at night because you are scared to go to sleep in case the fever gets out of control without you knowing.