Today I was thinking about my many years working with kids. This may be insulting to some of you but a lot need to hear it. It's one of my pet peeves.
I worked in Respiratory Care for 30 years. Twenty three of those 30 years was in a hospital setting and at least 15 was in pediatrics with the last 10 being coordinator of PEDS, NICU and Mother/Baby. I was clinical educator and helped teach a Family Asthma Class.
During those years in pediatrics I loved my job. I loved interacting with the children and learning about them. The one thing I didn't like about the job was the parents. I know that sounds harsh but let's look at it from a healthcare worker's perspective.
You bring your child into the doctor's office of hospital because they're sick and you want someone to help them. While there the staff must do some testing and even treatments and some of them are uncomfortable to anybody. A child of any age will fight, not because they're being tortured but because they "don't want to do it" They don't like being held down to have blood drawn and they start fighting before anyone even approaches them with the needle. The child needs to be restrained to get the blood without hurting them or causing any unnecessary damage. A needle and a fighting, flailing child don't go together. So, the staff usually a couple of them will restrain the child to hold them still so the blood can be obtained fast.
Now let's look at what happens when we try to treat that child with a breathing treatment. We must give the best treatment possible to be able to help your child and get them home faster. Children can't coordinate their breathing correctly to use the mouthpiece that most adults can use. We may have to hold a mask on their face to give the medications because the fastest way to get anything into the lungs is to inhale it. The mask is the ideal way to give a treatment and it doesn't do any good if the mask is not at least near the child's face. Sometimes to get the treatment done and get the most benefits we will need to hold your child tightly on our laps, holding their arms down and their head straight while they're breathing. A child will be crying during this but believe it or not crying is good, they're taking deeper breaths and getting more of the medication which is to their benefit.
Now comes the parents. The ones who interfere and don't want you doing anything their child doesn't want or like. The parents who will lay over the child to comfort them while impeding making it impossible to be able to see to draw blood or give a treatment rendering it totally useless. The parent may insist on holding the child to calm them down. This is fine IF the parent will hold the child still and make them take the treatment but holding a child and letting them flail and not allowing the treatment to be given appropriately again is useless.
I miss the days where we could ask the parents to leave the room while anything was being done. This made for a more compliant child because they knew their parent's weren't there to make us stop. This allowed us to get the job done faster with less discomfort to the child.
The roll of the parent is to ask questions, be informed and give consent. Yes you can and should speak up on your child's behalf since they can't do it for themselves. It's also to calm and comfort the child BEFORE and AFTER testing is done. To hold the child and dry their tears. Let the health care staff be the bad guys.
If you insist on bringing your child to a health care facility for diagnosis and treatment at least stay out of the way and let them do their job. Don't interfere and think it's in the best interest of your child because it's not. If the staff needs your help they'll ask for it, if you want to help hold your child ask if you can and take their lead on how to hold, don't be overbearing and controlling. After all, you brought your child to them. If you're going to dictate what is to be done and how, keep your child at home and see if your child gets any better without the experience and knowledge of the health care staff.
I worked in Respiratory Care for 30 years. Twenty three of those 30 years was in a hospital setting and at least 15 was in pediatrics with the last 10 being coordinator of PEDS, NICU and Mother/Baby. I was clinical educator and helped teach a Family Asthma Class.
During those years in pediatrics I loved my job. I loved interacting with the children and learning about them. The one thing I didn't like about the job was the parents. I know that sounds harsh but let's look at it from a healthcare worker's perspective.
You bring your child into the doctor's office of hospital because they're sick and you want someone to help them. While there the staff must do some testing and even treatments and some of them are uncomfortable to anybody. A child of any age will fight, not because they're being tortured but because they "don't want to do it" They don't like being held down to have blood drawn and they start fighting before anyone even approaches them with the needle. The child needs to be restrained to get the blood without hurting them or causing any unnecessary damage. A needle and a fighting, flailing child don't go together. So, the staff usually a couple of them will restrain the child to hold them still so the blood can be obtained fast.
Now let's look at what happens when we try to treat that child with a breathing treatment. We must give the best treatment possible to be able to help your child and get them home faster. Children can't coordinate their breathing correctly to use the mouthpiece that most adults can use. We may have to hold a mask on their face to give the medications because the fastest way to get anything into the lungs is to inhale it. The mask is the ideal way to give a treatment and it doesn't do any good if the mask is not at least near the child's face. Sometimes to get the treatment done and get the most benefits we will need to hold your child tightly on our laps, holding their arms down and their head straight while they're breathing. A child will be crying during this but believe it or not crying is good, they're taking deeper breaths and getting more of the medication which is to their benefit.
Now comes the parents. The ones who interfere and don't want you doing anything their child doesn't want or like. The parents who will lay over the child to comfort them while impeding making it impossible to be able to see to draw blood or give a treatment rendering it totally useless. The parent may insist on holding the child to calm them down. This is fine IF the parent will hold the child still and make them take the treatment but holding a child and letting them flail and not allowing the treatment to be given appropriately again is useless.
I miss the days where we could ask the parents to leave the room while anything was being done. This made for a more compliant child because they knew their parent's weren't there to make us stop. This allowed us to get the job done faster with less discomfort to the child.
The roll of the parent is to ask questions, be informed and give consent. Yes you can and should speak up on your child's behalf since they can't do it for themselves. It's also to calm and comfort the child BEFORE and AFTER testing is done. To hold the child and dry their tears. Let the health care staff be the bad guys.
If you insist on bringing your child to a health care facility for diagnosis and treatment at least stay out of the way and let them do their job. Don't interfere and think it's in the best interest of your child because it's not. If the staff needs your help they'll ask for it, if you want to help hold your child ask if you can and take their lead on how to hold, don't be overbearing and controlling. After all, you brought your child to them. If you're going to dictate what is to be done and how, keep your child at home and see if your child gets any better without the experience and knowledge of the health care staff.
1 comments:
Proper training of the parents has been lacking. I will talk directly with the child patient when age appropriate and if the parent answers, I will thank the parent for the info and ask the child the same question again. I always encourage the (age appropriate) child to take control of their care and NOT to wait until Mom notices that they are already in trouble. With breathing issues especially, the parent knows what they see, but the child knows what the FEEL and learning the signs of an impending attack sooner can help the child and the parent in the long run.
Don't even get me started on parents that smoke around their kids and wonder why the "medicine" is not working!