"Care of my child"

Recently my 20mth old child woke up with a rash on their torso and limbs, the rash started off looking like bites of some sorts, over the period of the day the rash changed to red spots looking like chicken pox, then more or a urticaria type rash, my spouse and I went to ED in Esperance where the Dr was great in assessing my child thinking an allergic reaction.

The following morning their rash had changed again in shape and size moving up to their head and face, we represented feeling concerned. The NP saw us - in this situation I had to prompt the NP to take my child's clothes off in the obs room in ED, they then gave a different outcome of post viral rash, which is completely a reasonable diagnosis. I then asked if there was someone else who could eyeball their rash as we had two different outcomes and I felt worried about my child’s rash - we also live 100kms out of town so was worried that maybe we needed some prednisone in case it got worse or more itchy-  the NP then proceeded to tell me they are a practitioner and doesn’t need anyone else to look at it and that I have a triage score that is low and I’ll have to wait - which of course we didn’t care about waiting because I wanted to have my child checked again, I reminded the NP that we have Aishwarya’s rule for a reason and that parental concern also gives you a point on a triage score. They then told me that the nurse manager would be informed of me asking for another set of eyes.

We then saw Dr Dale who made us feel very at ease - doing a a full check of my child the same as the Dr the night before - stripping our child off and checking them from head to toe. From this he made us feel at ease with a plan for what to do if our child's rash got worse and what to expect from this urticaria. Ensuring we had a plan to visit the GP if the rash hadn’t resolved - we had let him know that we didn’t have a GP for our child as they have never been unwell to need one - he then pointed us in the direction of local GPs who see children. 

I worry that if my husband had been alone in seeing the NP he would have felt brushed off and not been able to advocate as well for our child as I was being a nurse and midwife. As practitioners we need to respect the rights of patients to ask for another opinion and not take offence but trust that by doing this we are keeping them safe. I think we forget that it is a privilege to care and we shouldn’t make our patients feel bad about questioning the care we give - we all want the same outcome.