you know those parents who, when they find out you work with their son/daughter, would directly or indirectly ask you how their kids are as a worker/coworker?

you know what i’m talking about, right?

well, the whole night last night, i prayed earnestly that my patient wasn’t one of those parents. my heart skipped a little everytime he mentioned his son’s name. at first, he asked, “you know H? he’ll work tomorrow.”

i said okay and smiled.

at 2300, when he asked for pain medicine for the second time, while i was pushing the dilaudid, he asked again, “you know my son H, right? he has worked here for a long time…”

i said “yeah, i know him, of course i know him.” i smiled and left, almost in a hurry.

there’s nothing wrong with telling parents how their kids are as coworkers. you will not violate any confidentiality laws there.

what i was scared of was what if i can’t lie, and tell him how crappy his son is as a nurse?

what if i tell him, yes i have worked with his son for more than five years, and even once, i have not heard anybody say one good thing about him?

what if i can’t stop myself, and out of the freshness of my latest encounter with his son, i tell him how lazy his son is?

what if i lose all my inhibitions, and i tell him in all honesty that i have prayed all these years that if i, or any of my loved ones end up in a hospital bed, i hope i will never have the unfortunate experience of being assigned to his son.

i’m kidding. i cannot say such things. seriously. i may have lots of evil thoughts, but they usually stay in my head. or in my blog. because i’m trying to act like a real grown up.

anyway, it’s either he noticed i was avoiding talking about his son, or he wasn’t really that kind of parent. whatever it was, i was so glad to get out of the unit this morning without being put on the spot.

it would have been awkward. i can’t really say “well, well….your son is such a great nurse…”

none of that, because fate was obviously playing a trick on me, and his son happened to be this guy.