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You are here: Home / Archives for professional boundaries

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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Filed Under: Employment, Newsletter, Workplace Issues Tagged With: complaint, formal charges, nurse, nurses, nursing board, patient, professional boundaries, protect nursing license, protect patient, relationships with patients

When Helping Can Hurt You

July 12, 2018 by LORIE A BROWN, R.N., M.N., J.D. Leave a Comment

As nurses, while we really want to help our patients, we sometimes find that our being helpful can get us into trouble.  As you know, we are required to follow tons of rules.  We have to watch our professional boundaries to make sure we are not overstepping.

For example, if you work at an assisted living facility where one of your patients needs help getting groceries and you agree to get the items for the patient.  This is crossing the line.  You are there to provide nursing care and not help the patient with something like that.

I’m aware of what you’re thinking, “You know, I’m just trying to help her out.”  But still, that crosses the line and can lead you to trouble.professional boundaries nurses nursing patients

Another scenario is you have a patient who perhaps is constipated and requires Milk of Magnesia.  The physician normally prescribes that for all his postop patients but let’s say that, for whatever reason, this order got missed.  You go ahead and give the Milk of Magnesia to the patient while fully intending to get an order to cover you.

As much as you wanted to help the patient and relieve their suffering from constipation, this would be practicing medicine without a license.

Don’t fall into the trap; your license is too valuable.  It’s a true privilege to be a registered nurse but don’t mess up your career because you felt compassion toward a patient.

Here’s another example: your boyfriend is in pain and you give him one of your own pain medications left over from a surgery you had.  As much as you would like to ease his pain, this too is considered practicing medicine without a license.

How about if you were working on a cancer unit and when a patient passes away, the medications are left and not wasted.  If you save these for other patients who may not be able to afford these medications, even if ordered, is considered diversion.

If any of these situations cause you concern, I would suggest taking continuing education on ethics and professional boundaries to make sure you are complying with the law.  Each one of these nurses thought they were helping people and it turned out to hurt them.  Have you run across similar situations?  What did you do?  I would love to here your thoughts below in the comments.

 

 

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Filed Under: Employment, License Protection, Newsletter, Workplace Issues Tagged With: nurses, nursing, patients, professional boundaries, registered nurse

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Lawyer Lorie Brown | Lawyer Licensing
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