Hello??? Hello???

So my patient's mom hung up on me yesterday! I couldn't believe it!

I'm not sure why it was so shocking, but I initially gave her the benefit of the doubt and thought her cell just dropped the call, or my hospital phone that's known to do weird things just hung up.

Until I called her back and stated just that, and her response was "Uh- NO! I was done...I said OK!"

Except I wasn't done telling her about her extremely sick son! I had only said one thing...and had about 4 more to go. But apparently she was "done!"

Too bad. You need to be updated on what's going on here. And I'm going to tell you. Even if it means you hang up on me 2 more times. I WILL continue to call you back!

I'm not sure why parents think that taking their anger out of their child's nurse is the best idea. Nurses are the ones they should be the nicest to seeing as we are with their son or daughter 12 hours a day. Those other medical folks? Yeah they usually just pop in and out throughout the course of the day.

But instead, nurses are the ones that get yelled at and take the brunt of the anger even if it truly should be directed at a doctor/nurse practitioner/respiratory therapist etc. And now I am...we are...apparently the ones that get hung up on!

While I recognize that hanging up on me and not wanting to know information about the patient is a coping mechanism (the whole "If I'm not there to see just how sick my son is, and I don't listen to updates, then he truly isn't sick")- as a nurse it is my responsibility to make sure to advocate for the patient.

And if this means calling back a parent despite their anger, their frustration, their attitude, and their hanging up on me...I will do it!

At the end of the day, I will go home and know that while, yes, I got yelled at, I did the absolute best for my patient. And that's what matters. That's what truly counts. That's what nurses do.