A Pediatric Nurse Shares One Thing Parents Shouldn’t Do When Their Kid Is In The Hospital
It has to do with how you treat your nurses.
Having a sick kid is no fun, and being sick enough that you have to take a trip to the hospital is even less so. But, a quick way to take a situation from already-very-bad to somehow-even-worse is to make an enemy out of the very people that are there to help.
Mikey, @thesaintmikey on TikTok, is a pediatric travel nurse, who put out a passionate PSA for parents visiting the hospital with their kid.
“If you are bringing your kid to the hospital, especially if they are like, ‘stranger danger’ age... I am begging you not to make the nurse the villain,” he said.
“We are there to help your kid, and we are gonna be there all day, all night, coming and waking them up, getting their vitals. They're already scared of us, but if you make them more scared of us, we're all gonna have a bad time,” he continued.
Mikey explained that he had a young patient who was struggling to keep his nose cannula in place. Of course, they’re not the most comfortable thing for little kids, but they’re necessary to help a patient breathe. So, he appreciated when the patient’s mom stepped in to encourage him to leave the cannula alone... until she used one particular phrase.
“You have to tell your kid it needs to stay, but she was saying, ‘You need to keep it in, or they're gonna come do pow-pow,’” Mikey said.
“Do pow-pow” means, of course, give a shot.
There are a number of things wrong here! First, shots probably shouldn’t be used as a threat — they’re important for your health! Second, your kid is likely already scared if they’re in the hospital, they don’t need any added fear. And third, you’re telling your child to be afraid of the very people who are trying to help them, making their job more difficult, and your child feel less safe.
Based on the response from nurses and other medical professionals in the comments, this kind of behavior is far from uncommon.
“TRULY. I had a post T&A so in there every 3 hrs for meds. The kid was already anxious about meds, and mom just kept threatening that I’d give him a shot instead if he didn’t drink the syrup 😭😭😭” one nurse wrote.
Meanwhile, other users pointed out the potential impacts of instilling your child with a fear of nurses.
“Fast track to medical anxiety right there 😭,” one user noted.
“My mom did this so now i’m still horrified of the hospital… I’m 25,” said another.
Nurses’ jobs are hard enough — let’s try to work with them, not against them!
