boundaries

[fataldream81]

I attempted suicide (overdose) one year ago and while in hospital during one of the shifts I met a nurse and we hit it off - she was very caring. She offers her email and phone number and we have become friends. Is that a boundary crossing?

[Atl-Murse]

Yes, That is crossing the boundary in my opinion. It clearly makes you uncomfortable hence you asking this question.

[ohiobobcat]

Yes, very much so.

[joseyjo]

We just went over this exact thing in Mental Health class yesterday. Almost the exact scenario. Definitely boundary crossing. Our teacher said a couple times during class "once a patient, always a patient" meaning that nurses should NEVER have a social relationship with someone who was once a mental health patient of theirs.

A patient-nurse relationship is a therapeutic relationship where the nurse focuses only on the patient's needs, and not their own. A therapeutic relationship also doesn't involve giving advice, but only helping a patient work through the options to come to the solution that the patient feels is best. A social relationship is one where both people's needs are met, and advice is given.

When a therapeutic relationship turns in to a social relationship there is often an unhealthy blurring of expectations because the patient may feel like they should be getting something that the nurse is no longer expecting to provide, or a feeling like the playing field is not even (one person held to a higher standard than the other, etc.).

[elkpark]

Yes, that was highly unprofessional behavior on the part of the nurse.

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

The real issue becomes when you know someone personally, who then becomes a patient where you work. That makes it messy. I wouldn't continue this relationship if I were you, but that's just my opinion.

[RiskManager]

The risk manager says yes, this is a boundary violation.

[fataldream81]

Thank you. There is more than this to the story. She is not a mental health nurse, she treated me for the physical side of my suicide attempt so a general nurse.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

The same applies. It's still a boundary violation no matter what kind of nurse does it. Health care isn't about the nurse getting her/his needs met, it's about the patient. And it doesn't include becoming "friends" with that patient.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Doesn't matter what specialty she works in. The nurse violated ethical boundaries by giving out her email and phone number.

[Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN]

As a psych nurse who also has a chronic, at times debilitating, mental illness, this is tough. I have grown to love many of my patients and it can be hard to distinguish when a line is crossed, especially when I can empathize with them so easily.

That being said - yes, this is a boundary issue.

As my youth pastor said ad nauseum - "if you have to ask if it's wrong, it probably is."

[NOADLS]

"What happens to the patients after they go home?" is a something most of us wonder, but we aren't actually supposed to know (short of outpatient treatment, but we don't see very much beyond the fourth wall).

It would seem that the nurse in question broke the fourth wall. If you would like the fourth wall to be put back up, I would recommend this Donald Trump character.