Am I in violation of code of ethics?

[Nursey916]

So I work at an adult day care and it's not really like a normal nursing job. I'm with the same ppl 8hrs a day 5 days a week so I've grown very close to my members. They're like family to me. I've taken some of my members to bingo outside of work, invited one of my members over for thanksgiving because he has no family and I've purchased clothes for some of my members with my own money bc they can't afford new clothes. A lot of the members are very low income and they Can't afford new clothes. One lady was even being beat up by her husband and he kicked her out...she had no where to go so I let her stay with me for the weekend til she figured it out. Am I in violation of something here? I know I probably am but that really bothers me because I'm in no way exploiting or taking advantage of any of the members I do all I can to help them. Could I get in trouble for any of this? I'm just really worried when state does their compliance check that they may find out about some of these things and I could get my licensed taken or suspended. Where so I go from here?

[OrganizedChaos, LVN]

It's bothering me that I could get in trouble for the things I've done

All you can do is get malpractice insurance & not repeat the mistakes you made in the past. What's done is done.

[joe007]

The reason why it is a violation of ethics in my view is that someone could see it as you playing favorites. What if you bought jeans for "Joe" and didn't for "Sarah"? Sarah now could feel that she is less worthy than Joe and that you are playing favorites. Pretty much it goes back to the idea that is you can't do it for everyone, do it for no one. With that said, it sounds that you're a great person willing to take responsibility for your pts outside of work, but some lawyer will try to skew it into favoritism.

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

It's bothering me that I could get in trouble for the things I've done

Then move forward proactively. You cannot change what has already been done. My suggestions to protect yourself and your license.

Secure malpractice insurance today...about $100/year is worthwhile plus they can advise you on situations that you are not sure if they cross the line. The two major carriers are NSO and Marsh/ProLiability.

Seek out resources in your community, learn the contact number for domestic violence, ride services for seniors or disabled adults, locations of various church or other social service organizations that can offer a holiday meal, food pantry, clothing, supplies. Organizations such as the Elks have supplies for lend or donation such as walkers, crutches, wheelchairs. Lions have resources for vision tools. and more. Learn your community resources. Find out what resources are available from your local county health department. Enable your clients to be productive, self-sufficient individuals to the best of their abilities. You have an awesome opportunity here.

If you don't have a community consignment or salvation army or other resource, contact your employer to see if you can set up a donation closet for clothing, supplies, furniture, whatever needs you have noticed the members needing. Kind of if you have spare leave one, if you are in need take one. Sometimes scout groups and school groups will do donation drives to support such a supply closet.

Know and accept that your altruism and kind heart are both a strength and a weakness. Use your heart to drive you to find resources rather than put yourself at risk providing the resources yourself. You were concerned enough to post here in the first place. If nothing else, changing your ways should there be a retroactive issue or complaint in the future, (hopefully not) you will have evidence that you changed your methods by compiling community resources for your client's needs rather than providing them yourself and encouraging your coworkers to do the same.

[Nursey916]

This was probably one of the most helpful posts I have seen on here. Thank you!

[Angeljho, MSN, NP]

This was probably one of the most helpful posts I have seen on here. Thank you!

Did you suspect that you were violating the code of ethics? What made you question your actions that ultimately led you to here?

[Nursey916]

Because I knew in the back of my mind that what I was doing was "unprofessional"....but I didn't know to this extent and I wanted some clarification from other nurses.

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

And now you know better, someone even linked the ANA code of ethics for nurses in an earlier post. Move forward to protect yourself and reset the boundaries to stay on the side of an ethical professional. You have been lucky so far, don't test your luck moving forward. Again you have a wonderful opportunity here.

[BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN]

I can get my license taken for taking someone into my home out of the kindness of my heart? I know as a nurse we have professional boundaries to uphold but part of why I got into the profession is because I love helping people. I never had any ill intentions or ulterior motives doing any of the things I've done. The Bon wouldn't understand that?

Wow. Seriously? Are you aware of why the BON exists? I'm sure I sound harsh, but honestly, are you using the brain the good Lord gave you? Everytime you post I grimace and suck in my breath as I read.

YES, you can have your license revoked. It doesn't matter what your intentions were, it's all in how the BON sees it.

You need to back the heck off and stop what you're doing

[Nursey916]

We already established this 80 posts ago but thanks for your input. Now leave me be.

[Nonyvole, BSN, RN]

Nursey, people here aren't deliberately being mean. But that's the problem with communicating on forums - all of our non-verbal communication skills have been taken away, so we're lacking the full sensory input. Naive with a heavy sigh and rolled eyes can mean something completely different than naive with a smile, yes?

So this has been an amazing learning experience for you. As you just said, there was a part of your brain that was saying "this is unprofessional of me." Don't be afraid to listen to it. As the saying goes...when in doubt, don't. You have to have 100% agreement across all of your neurons to make any big decisions.

Taking the dog to the reservoir to go swimming and having that little voice going "well, then you have to deal with a wet dog..." and ignoring it is completely different than, say, buying a car and ignoring that voice that's saying "this isn't a need, you can't afford a BMW!" The second needs to be the little voice you hear at work.

[OrganizedChaos, LVN]

We already established this 80 posts ago but thanks for your input. Now leave me be.

No one is forcing you to come back to read the comments. If you don't want to come to the post, don't. Until the thread is closed people are going to post.

[Nursey916]

All these comments are repetitive. I Don't know why people feel the need to type out paragraphs upon paragraphs when it's already apparent I have receieves many answers to my questions.