As a parent, it is your job to monitor everything that happens with your child when he or she is in the hospital. Make sure there is an adult who is familiar with your child and your child’s needs during the entire time your child is in the hospital. When they take your child in for things like X-rays, physical therapy, etc. You should be there with them at all times. If well-meaning staff tell you that there is no reason for you to accompany your child, thank them and leave anyway. They don’t know your child like you.
The example of a mom:
“Three nurses came in to put my seven-year-old son on an IV. When they came in, they started talking fast and completely ignored me as they started to circle him. Before I knew it, everyone was putting on gloves and trying to reach him. “Wait a minute!” I said as I picked him up when he was starting to panic, “Everyone outside except a nurse.” I demanded, they all looked at me like I was crazy, but they all left.
Andrew and I have an understanding that no one understands. You know that I will explain everything to you step by step and I will not let you be held if you stay still. He knows he can cry, yell, kick and whatever he needs to do, but he can’t move his arm. If he hadn’t been there they would have held him and in doing so they panicked him and undo everything that he and I had worked on for the last 7 years. “
Some tips for when your child is in the hospital:
- Don’t ask the staff for help with your own personal needs. Take care of your own food, drink and hygiene needs. Ask the staff where you can do these things and ask what the particular hospital policies are, but they are not there to take care of you, they are there to take care of your child.
- Protect yourself and your child from additional hospital-acquired infections, especially during times like RSV season, which is typically during the winter months and is spread by respiratory particles or by contact with contaminated objects, such as bathroom accessories or even clothing. Things like this can even be passed on by doctors and nurses using the same stethoscope and blood pressure cuffs on your child that they use on children who have things like RSV. Keep a bedside scrub hand cleaner – use it yourself and offer it to professionals and staff before they touch your child.
- Since both children and hospitals tend to be sticky, carry a container of disposable antibacterial / antiviral wipes and frequently clean the surfaces that need it most: TV remotes, phones (including your own cell phone), doorknobs, bed control buttons, toys and dolls.
- Know your surroundings. From the beginning, read the rules and regulations that are posted in each room. Know where the nurse’s station, emergency exit, drinking water source, and public or visitor restroom are (unless you can use a private restroom). What services are there? Food delivered to parents, game room, toys, room, DVD or Internet access? What is the visitor policy? Locate the nurse call button, locate the phone and read the instructions, locate the lights and controls on the television. Find out how the bed buttons and side rails work. These seem like small, simple steps, but each hospital has different ways of doing things, and you need to know what your hospital is doing and expecting.
- Know where you are going to sleep before nightfall and familiarize yourself with that piece of furniture.
- Ask the nurse to tell you about each line and tube that connects to your child to deliver oxygen, fluids, medications, blood, and liquid feeding; to collect for the laboratory or to evacuate stomach contents, urine, drainage, pus, and air pockets. Each line must be clearly identified so that fluids and medications do not get into the wrong tube.
- Be vigilant when injecting any substance into a line. If you think someone is about to make a mistake, speak up immediately, but try to be attentive, not offensive. “Sorry to interrupt, but I thought that line was an arterial line, and they said nothing should be put into it.” Ask questions and don’t be afraid to speak up.
- If a treatment or procedure change is made, make sure you understand what it is and why. If the person performing the procedure is someone you don’t know or doesn’t make sense to you, ASK.
“While my 7-year-old son was sick and in the hospital, the nurse had trouble measuring his temperature accurately. She came in once and took him under her arm and got something close to normal.” That’s not right, “I said.” It’s at least 102. “I said feeling the lower part of her stomach where she has the fever. She looked at me as if she had lost her mind once more, but took it again, this time under her tongue. It was showing 101. She left then came back a few minutes later. “Sorry,” she said. “The resident has ordered you to have her rectal temperature taken.” She said, looking embarrassed. “No you’re not.” I told him, I thought AT 7 YEARS OLD NO! So I asked him what the reason was, since at 7 it didn’t matter if it was 101 or 102.
“What difference does it make?” He said he did not know, but that the doctor had ordered it. I told him to ask the doctor to come and explain to me why a 7-year-old was given a rectal temperature. She looked horrified.
She returned a few minutes later looking even more shocked and said, “The resident thought she was 7 months old.” It’s scary, isn’t it?
- Your child can be hooked up to monitors that keep up with the signals your child’s body emits. Monitors generally measure heart and breathing rates, blood pressure (how hard the heart needs to work), and oxygen supply to the blood. Make sure you know what monitors are and what the normal numbers should be for your child.
- Monitors cannot control everything, such as how your child feels, speaks, behaves, or “looks” just before vomiting. They also can’t announce that even though the numbers are within the “normal” range, like over an hour, the oxygen saturation drops from 100 to 93, clearly something is wrong, but the alarms don’t go off. To spot the trend, someone must be watching the child. That’s what nurses used to do in the past: they would get to know their little patients and be alert to such changes. Now it’s your turn YOU.
- If you think your child’s condition is getting worse, call a nurse.
- The nurses appreciate the gifts, but even better, they give them real help. A positive attitude that assumes that they know what they are doing and have your child’s best interests in mind. A note of praise to the nurse, with a copy for the supervisor and the hospital director, goes much further than chocolates. If you really want to bring a treat, most nurses appreciate fresh fruit even more than processed candy.
