Pediatrics

Well, I am back again. I never did get my nap today, by the time I went to lay down, I realized that it was late and the kids needed to get up so that they wouldn't be up half the night.

One of the downsides of being home is that I actually LIKE my job. I am a pediatric nurse in a children's hospital so I get to see all sorts of "interesting" things. Unfortunately, interesting translates into things that regular pediatricians and regular hospitals cannot treat, but the kids are amazing I have to say. I work in the float pool at my hospital which means I work on all the different units, so I defintely get to see a wide variety of patients and illnesses.

I love caring for the babies, they are my favorite. Whether I care for them in the NICU or on the cardiac floor or on a general pediatric floors, I am never happier than when I get to care for the babies. I like the little kids too, but I tend to lose my patients with the teens, especially the older teens. I think the older teens remind me more of the adults I cared for, and I left adult nursing and I have never looked back. Adults tend to be whiney by nature and "like" being sick, they seem to like having people wait on them, feel sorry for them, etc. Kids are so not like this, kids want to get better, they want to go and play, they don't "want" to lie around in bed. A kid can be sick as anything, but as soon as he/she feels a tiny bit better they are up and out of bed wanting to go for wagon rides or to play in the playroom or whatever.

Now, all of this being said, I have to admit to the downside of caring for kids and it probably isn't what you think. The downside is the parents. Not all the parents mind you, but a good number of them. I figure if you bring your kid to the hospital, you need to let the staff do what they need to do to take care of them...but no, I have many parents who won't let us do basic care because we may "bother" their child. Many parents won't let us take vital signs in the middle of the night because we "might" wake their child.

However, the worst offenders, in my opinion, are the ones who "forget" how to change a diaper or give a bottle when they walk through the front door. They are in the hospital and the nursing staff is suddenly responsible for diaper changes and bottles and baths, etc. We give our parents a letter when the kids are admitted that state that they are still responsible for basic care and the parents must sign the letter, yet they "sleep" through their kid screaming his head off for an extended period of time. We tend to get mad at the parents who "drop" their kids off like they are in a daycare center and come back to get them when they are discharged, yet I would rather deal with this than the parents who sit on their asses watching tv or talking on the phone while their baby sits in a dirty diaper or screams about being hungry. At least if I know a kid is alone, I can prepare for his/her care differently.

Okay, enough ranting about the parents and back to the fun part...the kids. These kids are unbelievable, whether they come in because they broke their arm or because they need an organ transplant or because they have cancer, they are just unbelievable. I remember when I worked day shift and a group of kids on the cancer floor were worried about their friend. I was taking care of the friend and he wasn't feeling well, so he just hung out in his room that day. Well, his friends (other patients with cancer) were more worried about him and if he was okay than they were anything else. One of them stopped and asked me if he was all right since they hadn't seen him in the playroom that day.

I remember one girl in the PICU who had gotten a liver transplant two days prior to my working there at night. She was up with her dad walking in the halls with a smile on her face. A liver transplant is MAJOR surgery, with a HUGE incision, yet she was up walking and smiling at night.

I get people who ask me how I can do what I do. My answer is to look around and see the kids, this is why I do what I do, they make it all worthwhile...inspite of their parents :o)