Parents

Hey guys,

I didn’t get a paeds prac this year but I did encounter some ‘pushy parents’ on my ortho ward. Occasionally on the ward >14 year olds are admitted if the fracture is complicated and needs to be ORIF’d . I had seen a few young guys that had their parents present during Rx and am not bothered by them watching or asking questions etc. This one boy (14yrs from a tiny country town) had both his parents present for both Rx sessions (am and pm) every day he was on the ward. The difficulty arose when it came time to attempt crutches for the first time. The parents really wanted him to use elbow crutches and the kid was terrified (he was WBAT), their biggest argument was that they were easier to get in/out of the car!! I agreed with the parents in that EC’s were the best option but for his first attempt I was happy to allow AC’s. He had only ever mucked around on crutches and they were AC’s and he didn’t think he’d be able to use EC’s. I felt like the parents were bullying him into what was best for them. T o keep everyone happy I let him use AC’s first then later that day after he was confident he progressed to EC’c then D/C the following morning…everyone was happy. Has anyone else had to deal with ‘pushy/ parents’ and how did you handle it? I know my case was pretty minor but got me thinking there must be more exteme cases…