"As a pediatric nurse, how do you deal with obnoxious parents?"

As a 20 year pediatric cancer nurse, I often had to deal with many very scared parents. Some became very angry, demanding and obnoxious , but honestly, I did my best to overlook their rants and never walked out on them. Instead, I usually tried to quietly listen until they calmed down.
I actually learned to forgive the majority of obnoxious parents, as I truly believed they were taking their anxiety and fears out on me only because they feared for their child's life. I also knew the parents viewed me as someone safer to "yell at" than the doctors.
By calmly listening and conversing with obnoxious parents and addressing their fears, I was actually building a relationship with them. My primary job as an advanced Hematology/Oncology nurse clinician was to teach the parents about their child's diagnosis and reinforce the chosen treatment plan that the hospital's pediatric cancer specialists had chosen for their child. I also obtained signed consent from a parent so their child could commence chemotherapy.
I always tried my best to be positive by presenting HOPE to both the child and parents to help alleviate many of their fears about cancer and its treatment. I taught the parents about their child's disease, the treatment plan and obtained both the parents' and child's signatures (when applicable) for written informed consent for cancer treatments.
I never had a parent or child refuse to sign the required consent forms for treatment. I was honest with them, answered their questions, explained side effects and stayed positive by giving them hope that the treatments could save their child's life.
Even during some of the most challenging and negative encounters with angry, obnoxious, and fearful parents, I never quit on them. I quickly learned that ALL parents of a child newly diagnosed with cancer, or a child dying from cancer acted out because they were FEARFUL of not only their child's diagnosis and treatment, but also the child'S future or possible death. It was my job to educate them about the treatment plan and give them hope and emotional support.

I rarely had to face VERY ANGRY or obnoxious parents as a Heme/Onc nurse clinician. The hardest ones to deal with were those few who chose to drink to numb their pain....but I still had to educate them.
Occasionally, I'd take an angry, threatening parent off of our pediatric oncology floor and we'd go outside for a walk or just sit quietly on a bench outside the hospital entrance and talk until the parent calmed down. I I still remember a parent who had a teenage daughter dying from leukemia tell me me that when her daughter died, she was going to kill the first person she saw! Fortunately, the daughter held on for several days, which gave her mother time to prepare for her death. When the daughter's death occurred four days later, her mom and I were in the room with her. I had prepared her mom for what to expect, and although there were tears when she died, her mother was happy her daughter died so peacefully.
I truly don't believe that parents are obnoxious without having a reason. Sometimes it's best for nurses to have a little more empathy and reach out to the obnoxious parent...as hard as that might be. I found in my practice that obnoxious parents were usually struggling with their child's diagnosis, treatments or pending death. Providing emotional support and parent education went a long way to help ease these parents' fears about their child's health, treatments or pending death.

I always put myself mentally in the position that this could be my child and how scared would I be? I then responded to them acknowledging the anxiety and fear they had. I encouraged them to touch, talk to, and reassure their child. I made sure favorite stuffed animal was in the child’s hand and that the tv was tuned to the child’s favorite show. Do things to provide comfort to the parents and their level of obnoxiousness should decrease.