A Parent's right to know

"Ah, I'm sorry Mr Smith, but I can't tell you" I said. There was a brief silence on the line, then it exploded in my ear. "Who the hell do you think you are? You're just a bloody nurse. I pay your bloody wages. Tell me what I want to know or you won't have a job by the time I'm finished with you." I held the phone away from my ear so the other nurses assembled in my office for this historic confrontation could hear.

Mr Smith was unhappy because his eighteen year old daughter, who was a student at our school, had needed some medical assistance, and he wanted all the details. He felt that because he paid for her to be here then that gave him free licence to look at all her health records.

"I'm her father and I demand to know what she was in the health center for" Mr Smith was beginning to sound like a broken record. "Perhaps you could speak to your daughter. But I can't divulge her health records to you. Even though she's at school, she's legally an adult now. Legally I can't give you her records" I explained. "So parents don't have any rights over their children? Is that what you're telling me?"

It wasn't about parents rights, but the right of the patient to recieve confidential care. Even though the patient is a student at a private boarding school. In fact, confidential care is even more important to a student living away from home, who often feels they have no one to turn to. Sometimes the health center is the only refuge some of these kids feel they have. If they think we are going to tell parents every thing the confide in us, it could in fact work against us, maybe even put students more at risk. I could tell there was no reasoning with Mr Smith, so stuck with the legal argument.

"Mr Smith, legally I can't tell you anything. I understand your worried, but I can say your daughter is fine" I said. "It's damn well not fine. It was a pregnancy test wasn't it, that's what she had" The guessing game had begun. It was time to end this conversation. "This conversation is over Mr Smith" I said. "Well, can you at least pass on a message from me?" he asked. That seemed reasonable enough and I agreed to do so. "Sure, go ahead" I replied. "You can tell her that if we find out it was a pregnancy test, she won't be getting a car for graduation, and she'll be paying her own way to university. Tell her she can give me the records herself, and if her record is clean, everything is ok."

"I'll be documenting this conversation Mr Smith. Goodbye." I hung up the phone, fuming with rage.