I was Abused!

I was abused yesterday by my patient's parents. Not physically abused, but definitely verbally. But I'm not taking it personally. There are many reasons for this:

1.) I am confident that I am a good, if not great, nurse!

2.) These parents were not put together in their heads

3.) They did this to everyone that walked into their room....docs would peek in and ask me to step out...only to ask "Is mom in there?" What they were really getting at was "I'll just come back when she's not here b/c I'm not dealing with THAT crazy lady!"

But here's the problem. Their child was floor status....this means, they are not really sick (yes, they are SICK, but not PICU sick!) In theory, if the patient was on the floor, that nurse would go in the room once every 4 hours to check on them. So tell me why it's acceptable for these parents to think it's my job and personal responsibility to stay in the kids room....all day. Even when I told them I had another "Very sick" patient to take care of!

Parents just don't get it sometimes! And nurses are the ones that get the brunt of it....sometimes b/c the docs are too timid to deal with it. Sometimes it's simply b/c we're there at the bedside for almost 13 hours at a time. But either way it is DRAINING!!

At the end of the day, these were some of the things I was told (that I remember-there were too many hits to recall each one!):
1.) I am "cold hearted"

2.) I do not know how to identify pain in a baby (correction, YOU don't know how to identify pain in your child....a sleeping baby is NOT a baby in pain!!)

3.) It's a good thing that I "Started out at the bottom" and am still here...eventually I can "Work my way up to the floors" (hello, does this dad know what we DO in the PICU??? They are the sickest of the sick!)

and 4.) I didn't care for the baby while the parents were gone, I just "strapped him down to the bed" (correction, that's called swaddling....babies love it! that's why when you walked into the room he was sleeping = comfortable = not in pain!)

So when I got home, legs throbbing from not sitting all day and head hurting from not drinking water or eating much all day, it was a welcomed surprise to find Jonathan had wine and cheese set out for me....put us on the couch to talk about my day....and an amazing leg/foot massage! Ahh, this nurse is married to the best man in the world!