All parents know this feeling. Your phone rings and the number for your child’s school or daycare flashes on the screen. A sense of dread washes over you because you know what this probably means – your child is not well. You start mentally reshuffling your plans for the next week, trying to determine how you’ll manage work and all of your other commitments with a sick little one at home, not to mention the fear of yourself or others in the family getting sick too.
On top of that, you start worrying about the illness itself and how bad it’s going to get. You question your ability to know what to do and when to seek help, and you stay up late trying not to Google symptoms in a spiral of panic. But what if you had access to evidenced-based knowledge and tools that would allow you to confidently manage your child’s illness without freaking out?
All parents know this feeling. Your phone rings and the number for your child’s school or daycare flashes on the screen. A sense of dread washes over you because you know what this probably means – your child is not well.
Enter Penny Blunden, a Newcastle-based Paediatric Nurse, mum, and founder of an online education platform called Sick Happens, who is teaching parents the world over how to deal with inevitable childhood sickness confidently and calmly, from gastro to croup and every type of virus in between.
Having worked bedside as a Paediatric Nurse for almost ten years, Penny had a strong desire to pivot into more of an education-based role, but didn’t quite know how that would look and was scared to make the leap. After becoming a mum, Penny wanted to find a way to continue working in the field she loved, without having to go back to work full time.
Like many new parents, she turned to Instagram where she found many others seeking connection and advice on all aspects of looking after young kids, including the dreaded succession of illnesses that start in those early years of life.
“I created my profile on Instagram to test the waters and see what people wanted to learn about,” explained Penny. “I started by developing different social media posts, as well as downloadable fact sheets on common topics. The one thing that became apparent pretty quickly was that most parents had the same questions, so while I initially thought I’d move on to providing one-to-one education sessions, I realised that there was scope to try and reach more people at once and started thinking about what I could offer in the form of an online course.”
Penny’s Instagram following grew quickly, which she attributes to the fact that despite there being multiple accounts dedicated to paediatric first aid education, no one else was doing what she was. She now has over 160,000 followers, and an inbox of messages that is difficult to keep on top of. When it came to the point that she could no longer manage her inbox, and she found that so many of the messages were asking the same kinds of questions, Penny realised that what she had created in Sick Happens was becoming more than a full-time job. Also, there was a substantial number of parents desperately seeking advice on how to manage things when their kids became sick.
“I created my profile on Instagram to test the waters and see what people wanted to learn about… The one thing that became apparent pretty quickly was that most parents had the same questions”
“In the age of parenting today, there’s a large amount of information available at our fingertips,” said Penny. “If anything, this puts more pressure on parents. They have all this information, but they have to try and filter through it, and when it comes to kids getting sick, much of it tends to be fear mongering. My approach has always been to acknowledge that yes, gets kids sick, but to provide balanced and practical information that takes the pressure off parents and helps them to stay calm.”
Penny’s online course guides parents through a range of modules that focus on the most common symptoms they might encounter when their little ones get sick. From fevers, rashes, respiratory issues, vomiting and more – you’ll find every type of scenario covered.
Since its creation, the course has been through three full rewrites, as Penny always aims to ensure the information remains relevant and practical. Attendees hear from Penny via lessons on video, and also have access to a private online community where they can talk to each other, and to Penny herself.
After becoming a mum, Penny wanted to find a way to continue working in the field she loved, without having to go back to work full time.
Anyone who enrolls in the course can work through it at their own pace, and will continue to have lifetime access to it, which means that instead of turning to Dr Google in the middle of the night, they can open up the course and head straight to the symptom their child is experiencing. Alongside the course, Penny has also created a couple of products, such as a magnetic medicine tracker and the very comprehensive ‘Sick Tracker’ which is a printed guidebook packed to the brim with valuable information for parents.
“Previously, the only way parents would be able to access this kind of information was either in hospital where there’s no time, or at a GP appointment, where you often walk away feeling overwhelmed and can never remember what was said,” explained Penny. “I wanted to create a platform where I had the time to provide in-depth information about why these things happen when kids get sick, and teach parents when to seek help or how to manage it at home.”
“No one actually wants to take their child to the Emergency Room in the middle of the night, but so often it happens because parents become terrified when their kids get sick and they’ll rush to the hospital at the first sign of a sniffle,” continued Penny. “Either that, or we see the opposite where parents feel like they’ll be wasting the staff’s time by bringing them to hospital, and by that point their child actually is very sick. Through all the work that I’ve put into Sick Happens, it’s about finding that sweet spot and giving parents the confidence they need, whatever the scenario
may be.”
As a registered nurse with an ever-growing social media presence, Penny operates under rules governed by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), meaning there are certain things she can and cannot do online. This includes things like never recommending specific products, but also ensuring that she does not provide individual medical advice.
Penny’s online course guides parents through a range of modules that focus on the most common symptoms they might encounter when their little ones get sick. From fevers, rashes, respiratory issues, vomiting and more – you’ll find every type of scenario covered.
“This is why I always try to use real case studies in my course or social media posts,” said Penny. “I will often reach out to my community and ask permission to use videos or images of their sick kids to incorporate into my resources, because there really is no better way to learn than through real examples.”
Despite the way Sick Happens has continued to grow, as well as the fact that Penny has two young boys of her own to take care of, continuing to work in clinical roles has remained incredibly important to her.
“It would actually be so much easier for me to become unregistered, because then I wouldn’t be bound by all the rules, but continuing to be a registered nurse is so important to me,” explained Penny. “I’ve stayed within the casual pool for nursing, but I also work in a clinical role that supports parents in the home. It’s a great way to keep my skills fresh and be aware of which illnesses are currently circling in the community, which in turn helps me with what I provide through Sick Happens.”
The way that Penny has managed to translate her nursing skills and knowledge into a successful online business is inspiring. Her resources are simple yet effective, beautifully designed and engaging, but most of all they come from a place of empathy and a genuine passion for helping others. You’ll get to know Penny as a person and mum too, and she never shies away from throwing in a nineties tune or two into her content. But despite its success, Penny admitted that when starting out, she had doubts about how Sick Happens would be perceived.
“It’s a great way to keep my skills fresh and be aware of which illnesses are currently circling in the community, which in turn helps me with what I provide through Sick Happens.”
