Hello everyone, 

I am a pre-nursing student, currently taking the last semester of my prerequisites. I would like to work in Pediatrics once I become an RN. 

For those of you who are Pediatric Nurses, does it bother you when you see obese children? How do you tell the patients parents that their child is fat? Do you ever feel angry at the parents for letting their children get so unhealthy?

 Thanks

Dear NENARK,

It's very upsetting to see little kids who are just too big for their age!!!  I can fault the parents, you have to model certain behavior, and your child will follow what they see. If Mom and Dad are eating healthy and do it consistently, the kids will see it and follow their folks. Clear and simple, show your child a good example and they will incorporate that as a part of what they are and what they should do. Because if Mom and Dad do it, I should too!!!!!! I guess I'm kind of giving parents a rough shake, but that's what I believe!!!!! I as a nurse can teach my pt. how to control portion size, don't eat too much sugar, and slow down with the Cola, but it will all be for naught if the parents don't stay with the plan.

I hoping in the near future we will see less obese kids, but I think it's going t get worse before better. Parents just don't have too much time to prepare meals, so when a McDonald's is around the corner, there they go!!!!!!! Fast food is a childhood killer!!!!!!!!

I feel this is best to be handled by 1) Pediatrician, 2) Dietician 3) Social Service 4)Nurse.

I have to go with the camp that is saying physician and dietician. 

OliviaWagner had mentioned a good site, but that is for Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, which would put them in the same column as physicians.

Generic RN's (Non-PNP's) can find themselves in a lot of hot water by bringing this up to parents.  Technically, it falls outside of the practice of nursing, by making a medical diagnosis.  If they sued, you would lose. 

Did you know that if the hospital says that they insure you when at work, that means if you are performing nursing and doing it right?  If you do nursing wrong, they MAY protect you from the patient's lawsuit (to protect themselves), but then the hospitals insurance company can sue you for practicing medicine when you were only hired to practice nursing.  Your license, career and house just went down the drain.

Make sure that you buy your own policy, under your own name.

I forgot to mention one other thing that I have seen over the years that has nearly put a few nurses into jail.

Advocacy over nursing.  Advocating for a patient regarding their care is one thing.  Becoming a crusader for what you believe is right is another.

The most extreme case that I saw was a nurse on the southern border, who had plans to take a small child into "her protection" to try to keep her from going back to El Salvador.

That may sound like 'good intentions'.  Under the law, it is called kidnapping.

Both of the child's parents were in the US illegally and facing deportation to El Salvador.  The nurse was going to act on her own, based on what the newspapers and TV news had lead the America people to believe was happening in El Salvador in the 1980's.

The truth.  More people from El Salvador were murdered in Los Angeles in the early 80's than people from El Sal, living in El Sal, over the same time period.  The reality was: the US Immigrations actually made them safer by sending them home, than letting them continue living in Los Angeles.  (True Story)

Moral of the Story: Stick to what your state's Nurse Practice Act describes as nursing.  Legally, if it is not in the Act, it is not legal to practice as nursing in your state.  And read the act for each state that you practice in.  My responsibilities as an RN over LPN practice was different in DC, than in Maryland and different again in Virginia.

Not ALL of us heard it in school.