WEBVTT - Parental instincts reportedly invaluable in emergencies

0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:03.040
<v Speaker 1>A report out today. This is a delicate issue obviously,

0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.600
<v Speaker 1>a report out today that our parents gut instinct that

0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:10.200
<v Speaker 1>their child is deteriorating, their health is deteriorating. This could

0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:14.560
<v Speaker 1>be used in a hospital. The basis of this report

0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:18.599
<v Speaker 1>is that a lot of parents have a comprehensive instinctive

0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:23.120
<v Speaker 1>feeling about their child's health. Michael Page is, the WA

0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:26.200
<v Speaker 1>President of the Australian Medical Association, joins me now today.

0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:28.120
<v Speaker 2>Michael, morning Bowie.

0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:33.720
<v Speaker 1>It's my understanding when parents perhaps do present in an

0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:36.639
<v Speaker 1>eed or to in a serious situation that they are

0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:39.519
<v Speaker 1>they can be asked there is a parental scorecard, is

0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:42.159
<v Speaker 1>my understanding. But this is a little bit of a

0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:45.120
<v Speaker 1>game change. This Monash University study. Are you worried that

0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:47.600
<v Speaker 1>your child is getting worse? Is the question? What do

0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:48.360
<v Speaker 1>you think and feel?

0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:54.720
<v Speaker 2>Look, I think this study tells us what many parents

0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:58.760
<v Speaker 2>probably already know, that their instincts about their child's health

0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:04.080
<v Speaker 2>pretty good, are pretty well honed. And it also tells

0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:06.720
<v Speaker 2>us something that many doctors and nurses who work, particularly

0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:10.440
<v Speaker 2>in emergency departments. This is an emergency department based study

0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:13.320
<v Speaker 2>also already know, which is that if a parent is

0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:17.360
<v Speaker 2>concerned expresses concern, then they ought to be taken seriously

0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:21.120
<v Speaker 2>because they know their child well and if they've got

0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:23.880
<v Speaker 2>a gut feeling that something is just not quite right

0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:27.759
<v Speaker 2>with their child, in many instances that gut instinct will

0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:34.360
<v Speaker 2>be correct and may even and may even may even

0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:38.800
<v Speaker 2>be superior to traditional kind of measures of whether a

0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:41.199
<v Speaker 2>child is unwell. In other words, of parent's gut instinct

0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:43.720
<v Speaker 2>might give you more information than just taking their heart right,

0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:45.720
<v Speaker 2>taking the blood pressure, changing the temperature, and so forth,

0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:48.160
<v Speaker 2>that might give you additional information over and above those

0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:50.440
<v Speaker 2>things as to whether that child is likely to deteriorate.

0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:52.960
<v Speaker 2>And that's something that has been I think, you know,

0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:55.280
<v Speaker 2>many people have known that for a long time. It

0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:58.480
<v Speaker 2>has already before the publication of this study started to

0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:03.600
<v Speaker 2>be incorporated increasingly to clinical assessment algorithms in emergency departments,

0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:06.480
<v Speaker 2>as you alluded to, and of course you know there's

0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:11.400
<v Speaker 2>been some high profile cases which have drawn attention to that.

0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:16.600
<v Speaker 1>So, Michael, to your understanding, and I haven't unfortunately I've

0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:18.760
<v Speaker 1>been I haven't been to an AD with any of

0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:20.800
<v Speaker 1>my kids apart from one time. But that was fairly

0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.560
<v Speaker 1>obvious that she'd managed to breathe in a ten cent coin,

0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:26.520
<v Speaker 1>so we all knew what was happening. But is it

0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.400
<v Speaker 1>part of the process now where the parent is proactively

0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:33.040
<v Speaker 1>asked in in wads, what do you think is happening here?

0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:37.560
<v Speaker 2>It's a pretty routine it's a pretty routine question now

0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:40.880
<v Speaker 2>in emergency departments for parents to be asked about their

0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:43.480
<v Speaker 2>level of concern. I mean, I suppose to some extent

0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:46.080
<v Speaker 2>their level of concern is taken for granted given that

0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:48.920
<v Speaker 2>they've brought their child to an emergence department. I've obviously

0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:53.080
<v Speaker 2>got some baseline concern. But now we've got things like

0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:56.720
<v Speaker 2>call lines in the emergency department. If a child is

0:02:56.840 --> 0:03:00.720
<v Speaker 2>waiting in an emergency department waiting room, they are able

0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:05.440
<v Speaker 2>to raise their concerns proactively by use of a telephone

0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:07.360
<v Speaker 2>to say, look, I think my child's deteriorating in the

0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:10.120
<v Speaker 2>waiting room. I don't think it can wait any longer,

0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.920
<v Speaker 2>and that should alert the clinicians to the need to

0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:19.120
<v Speaker 2>more rapidly assess that child. Because, of course, sometimes a

0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:22.280
<v Speaker 2>child might only be subtly unwell. But the thing about

0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:27.320
<v Speaker 2>children is they're very resilient until they until they're not

0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:30.480
<v Speaker 2>if you get what I mean, they can appear quite

0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:33.600
<v Speaker 2>well and things can go south, very, very suddenly, and

0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:37.160
<v Speaker 2>that's why that parental concern. Look, I think my child's

0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:41.160
<v Speaker 2>deteriorating needs to be needs to be factored in, because

0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:43.400
<v Speaker 2>that can happen very quickly in an emergency fart a

0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:44.200
<v Speaker 2>waiting room.

0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:47.040
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, for sure. I hope you don't mind me asking this, Michael,

0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:49.600
<v Speaker 1>do you have kids? Has your gutting sync around your kids?

0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.040
<v Speaker 2>I do? And you know, thinking about a study like this,

0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:56.360
<v Speaker 2>you know, as a parent rather than a doctor, I think, well, gee,

0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.200
<v Speaker 2>you know every time, you know, doctors are the worst

0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:02.600
<v Speaker 2>actually when it comes to catastrophizing things with their own children.

0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:05.880
<v Speaker 2>You know, you know, the slightest symptom is suddenly a

0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:08.840
<v Speaker 2>horrible disease, and of course usually it's not. And that's

0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:11.560
<v Speaker 2>why I think a study like this is important and

0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:14.680
<v Speaker 2>it should change practice. But of course it's not to

0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:19.680
<v Speaker 2>say that every child's, every parent's worst morbid fear about

0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:24.800
<v Speaker 2>what the symptoms their child has could mean are necessarily

0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:27.480
<v Speaker 2>going to be correct. And I say that from personal experience,

0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:31.800
<v Speaker 2>not again as a parent. You know, I can catastrophize

0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:35.600
<v Speaker 2>with the best of us, and I'm usually wrong. So

0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:38.360
<v Speaker 2>it's not to say that we should you know, get

0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:40.640
<v Speaker 2>on Google every time our child's got a sniffle and

0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:45.000
<v Speaker 2>assume the absolute worst. But on the more serious end

0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:48.640
<v Speaker 2>of things, of course, if a parent is worried about

0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:51.680
<v Speaker 2>their child, it does need to be taken seriously and

0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:54.400
<v Speaker 2>it does need to be properly investigated. And when that's

0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:58.239
<v Speaker 2>in the emergency setting, that's where things can really go wrong,

0:04:58.279 --> 0:04:59.560
<v Speaker 2>if something is missed.

0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:03.719
<v Speaker 1>Michael, thanks for making yourself available or we always appreciate

0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:05.880
<v Speaker 1>our chats. Thanks Michael any time.