Need Advice-Agency LVN renting room from Family

[maryen]

Hi,

I seem to have lost my way on this and could really use a reality check and advice. At one of my pt. homes I have just become aware that one of the night shift nurses(we work for the same agency) is renting a room in the up stairs portion of the family duplex where the Step Mom and Father live. The pt. lives on the bottom floor. This just seems so wrong to me-the nurse is attending family events, watching movies with the pt. when off duty and going out to dinner with family and pt.

Should I say something about this to the agency? It has been bothering me ever since I found out.

[CabanaDay]

So.. You would say.. in my apt complex. I live upstarts.. have been for years. The downstairs neighbor becomes a pt of my agency, whom I AM NOT assigned however I am considered a friend...(take her to the grocery store, run errands etc on MY time) I'd need to be worried that is unprofessional. Hmmm .. interesting.

Well, were I you I would advise my Agency of a possible conflict of interest.

Also, I'd make sure those trips to the grocery store were infrequent or for periods of relatively short duration.

[KateRN1]

So.. You would say.. in my apt complex. I live upstarts.. have been for years. The downstairs neighbor becomes a pt of my agency, whom I AM NOT assigned however I am considered a friend...(take her to the grocery store, run errands etc on MY time) I'd need to be worried that is unprofessional. Hmmm .. interesting.

I don't think anyone said anything of the sort. Separate home with a locked door, clear boundary there. You're not renting a room from the patient in the same home. You're not assigned to the patient. If agency asks, you refuse. You also refuse to involve yourself in any care of the patient. No boundary crossed.

However . . . .

Patient/neighbor asks you to intervene on his/her behalf with the agency or with another nurse employed by the agency = boundary violation. Agency asks you to cover shift with patient/neighbor = boundary violation. As a friend, you participate in friend-like activities with patient/neighbor = no boundary violation.

Short version: your friends should not be your patients and your patients should not be your friends. Ever. When one relationship begins, the other ceases to exist. Period. End of story. If you don't get that, seriously consider going to your local community college and signing up for a class on healthcare ethics or look for CEU modules online.

[KateRN1]

More about boundary violations from:

The NCSBN

Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins (CEU article)

National Center for Competency Testing

College of Psychologists of Ontario (geared toward psych profession, but still very apropos for nursing)

Arizona Board of Nursing (lots of good info here with definitions, examples, although most is geared toward sexual misconduct)

UCSF Medical Center (for nursing assistants but still good info and suggestions on how to recognize boundary violations)

Professional Boundaries Quiz Scrubsmag.com

That should be plenty to get you started.

[Kyasi]

Our agency's Code of Ethics clearly states that no employee will reside in a client's home. End of story. These rules are made for a reason.

My last few weeks at work have been consumed with the end results of the things that happen when an employee decides to not follow these professional guidelines. (Online state incident reports, APS referrals, reporting employees to the Licensing Board, write-ups, and a few terminations) It gets very ugly.

Just when I think I've seen it all, something new happens to totally astound me. Some 'professionals' are sitting on their brains.

Can you tell I've had a bad day??

Kyasi

[maryen]

I have learned that the person I reported it to took no action whats so ever and is no longer with the agency. Here I am a year later and it continues to happen and has gotten slightly worse. I posted in the LVN section about it. In hindsite I should have been much more proactive a year ago when it all started. Lesson learned.