Nursing And The Coronavirus

March 12, 2020 by LORIE A BROWN, R.N., M.N., J.D. 2 Comments

A nurse working at Kaiser in California took care of a patient who was positive for the coronavirus. She volunteered to care for this patient because she had training on the recommended protective gear. Her assumption was that should something happen to her, she would be cared for.

Unfortunately, after a few days passed, the nurse became ill. She put herself on a 14-day self-quarantine period. However, she could not get tested to confirm whether she had contracted the coronavirus. At that time, she was put on some type of list.

The United States has the lowest number of tests conducted for the coronavirus as compared to the rest of the world. It goes without saying that if we cannot get tested, how do we know who has it and then how can we limit the spread of the coronavirus?

Fortunately, this nurse had the support of her union, National Nurses United, which hosted a press conference on this matter at 11:00 A.M. PDT on March 12, 2020. You can listen to it here.

What concerns me about this situation is that this nurse took care of a patient with confirmed coronavirus and became ill. My issue with this nurse who became ill after she cared for the patient is that if it is not proven that she contracted the coronavirus during her treatment of the patient, her employer would have grounds to deny any workers compensation claim she might make.

It is very important that nurses who are exposed to the coronavirus get the proper documentation, so they not only get their time off but also for any medical care co-pays and any other sequelae.

I hope nothing like this happens to you, but it possibly could. Approximately 65 employees from the nursing home where many of the deaths from coronavirus are now ill but unable to get confirmatory testing. It’s scary that all these people are getting infected and I am hopeful they can contain the virus.

In the meantime, do whatever you can do to keep yourself healthy including taking vitamin C, exercising, drinking plenty of fluids, get adequate sleep and taking probiotics.

What has your facility done in light of the coronavirus outbreak? Have any specific precautions been put in place there to protect you?

Please share in the comments below.

Know Your Professional Boundaries

March 28, 2019 by LORIE A BROWN, R.N., M.N., J.D. 2 Comments

When I was practicing years ago, there were no rules regarding professional boundaries. I took care of people in the community where I lived and everyone knew each other. When I would run into them at the grocery store or the mall, I would always say “hi!” Some of my colleagues even went to former patient’s houses for meals or holidays.

Nowadays there are rules regarding professional boundaries. As much as we would like rebel against these rules, they really are designed to protect us. Lately, I have seen nurses who date patients after their care has ended and then the relationships go sour and the former patient files a complaint against the nurse.

I’ve also seen a nurse who just wanted to help a patient in a nursing home who asked her to go to the bank machine across the street and withdraw money from her account for her. The nurse would take the patient’s card and her PIN, go across the street and bring the patient back cash. The nurse even went on her break. The nurse thought she was doing the patient a favor. However, the patient reported that the nurse stole thousands of dollars from her account.

Lastly, another nurse befriended a former patient of hers and she would meet him frequently outside of work. He then made false claims against the nurse and told her if she would pay him some money, the complaint would “go away”.

As you can see in each situation, the nurse violated her professional boundaries by becoming involved with a patient above and beyond what she was employed to perform, nursing care. In each case, the nurse thought she was helping a patient or in the case of relationship with a former patient she married, a life partner. But in each of these situations, they backfired against the nurse and resulted in Nursing Board claims. Professional boundaries are in place not only to protect the patient but to protect you too.

As a nurse, it’s fine to say hello to former patient you see on the street but that is it. Do not establish a relationship or friendship with that person. Once the nurse-patient relationship ends, it is okay to befriend a patient but be careful of what happened in the above situations.

Your license is more important and it’s important to do what you can to keep it safe.

I would love to hear any stories of nurses’ good deeds that turned bad like the ones above and how they handled it. Please share in the comments below.

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