Passionate Parents

Peds is a unique speciality in that while you generally deal with kids, you more often than not deal with the parents that come with them. Adults are…interesting. Navigating waters with them can be tricky. This has been a week of the pretty sensitive and lengthy conversations with super passionate parents, especially those with complex kids. Their involvement and knowledge are more often than not very helpful. Other times their passion for their kids can take the form of frustration and outbursts directed towards the team. On the one hand, you get it. This is their kid. They want them to get better. And so do you. But parents don’t always get that sense no matter what you do. And sometimes they don’t get that doctors won’t always have the answers.

In my one week of inpatient “general” peds, I’m learning that even though I know I want the best for these kids, I need to consciously make the effort to let parents know this. This can be done with reassuring words on rounds or by coming by to check on kids later in the day without an agenda. It’s hard to do this sometimes as an intern because things just get busy during the day and we don’t always have time to go back and make conversation when we’re downing in answering pages or typing up notes.

I’ve found, however, that when I have time to go back and see my kids in the afternoon parents are more relaxed and appreciate having someone to talk to about how things have been going. They get so see that you care.