Difficult Parents

Sometimes in Paediatrics, the most troublesome part does not lie in the patients, but in their parents who think they know a lot, but in actual fact, they know nothing or the wrong thing.

Take for example today, my colleagues and I had difficult time explaining the importance of CBD urine sample, as part of the prolonged jaundice investigation. After getting consent to proceed with inserting the CBD -- luck did not side us. It was a hard time looking out for that tiny little urethra opening in that chubby little baby girl. And so, the parents who were outside the treatment room, rushed in and started blaming us for "torturing" their baby -- and they asked "is it necessary to have that CBD afterall?" ... "can't you all just use the urine bag for collection?"

Well, mister and missus, your kid has tried a clean catch urine for the past 4 times, and each time was a lousy catch -- heavily mixed growth urine sample. So how many more times you want to take leave from your boss just to come here to the clinic and learn that you need to repeat your kid's urine sample?

Sometimes, parents think very superficially. When it comes to a sick child, they think the doctors are God, and with a magical touch, their kids will recover without any invasive intervention. They will only want some oral medication -- anti-tussive, anti-diarrheoa, anti-fever, anti-vomit, anti-biotics, anti-viral ... and anti-almost-everything-under-the-sun. But when it comes to a hospital setting, they are defensive, they are suspicious, they are ignorant... some are arrogant.

• Blood taking time -- they ask "why are u taking so much blood, my child will be anemic!"
• CBD insertion time -- they yelled "hey can't u just ask the nurse to collect the urine using a bottle?"
• Resetting IV lines -- they frowned "u all didn't set a good line earlier on, huh?! unnecessary suffer for my kid"
• At the A&E -- they asked "why are u not admitting my child?"
• But in the ward, less than 24 hours -- they asked "can my child be discharged today?"

It is easy for others to say -- well, who ask you to do paeds? who ask you to take up medicine as a career? you should be more compassionate as a doctor... blah blah blah

But all in all, I think I have not chosen the wrong career. It's just the public education needs to be strenghtened and the public needs more guided education by the medical staff, rather than letting them to read info over the internet.