CNA 11 Years need your help

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Hello all of you courageous frontliners, I need to ask you guys a question. I was recently fired for violating company policy. My question is does anyone know if it's against any policy that you know of that you can't follow a patient to another facility, visit and run errands for them. Being that they are no longer in your facility.

Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
1 hour ago, L.P.CNA said:

Thank you TriciaJ, but the patient is not young he's over 50 years old. He's in his right state of mind with no dementia or anything. He told his mom that I had the card and she took it upon herself to call and ask for the card. He didn't know that she had done that until I told him.

1 hour ago, caliotter3 said:

I'll bet a dime to a dollar the mom made that call for the intended effect as well as her stated reason. People can't be that naive to the ways of the world. Same thing as when debt collectors call a person's place of employment until the employee wises up and tells them to stop.

Regardless of age and mental status, mom is very much in the picture and had issues with the whole debit card thing. Maybe the biggest moral of this story is to be really leery of handling anyone else's money, even a dry debit card. Way too easy to get accused of something.

How did you come to be befriended by this person, anyway? As opposed to 11 years worth of other patients?

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Specializes in IMC.
23 hours ago, L.P.CNA said:

I did nothing with the card but hold onto it, no funds were on the card. I most definitely didn't do anything illegal, that's not the type of person I am nor am I a predator who looks for easy targets. I truly care and have deep feelings and compassion for everyone I come in contact with. My character have never been questioned. I made a bad judgment call but really didn't think that I was doing anything wrong or I wouldn't have done it. I've been a CNA for 11 years and I've never heard anything about this kind of thing. I was off duty, on my own time, he had not been at the facility for months and I went to visit him as a friend that was concerned about his well being. Never ever had I asked for a dime to do anything for him.

Does not matter.

Boundaries! Boundaries! Boundaries!

When a patient/resident leaves a facility your relationship with them is terminated. You can be an empathetic and a comassionate caregiver without getting personally involved with them.

This is a valuable lesson you have earned and I hope you do not repeat it! I believe you have no maliciousness in what you did; however, that does not matter the facility terminated you to protect themselves.

Best of luck in finding new employment.

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Specializes in CNA.

He was a patient of mine for a year, I would take him out to smoke and we would talk about religion, current events, likes and dislikes. I was always trying to give him words of encouragement as I do with all of my patients. This went on for a year, All of my patients with the exception of a couple of them love the fact that I listen and talk to them not only as a nurse but a friend that they can call upon anytime.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.
1 minute ago, L.P.CNA said:

He was a patient of mine for a year, I would take him out to smoke and we would talk about religion, current events, likes and dislikes. I was always trying to give him words of encouragement as I do with all of my patients. This went on for a year, All of my patients with the exception of a couple of them love the fact that I listen and talk to them not only as a nurse but a friend that they can call upon anytime.

It would be in your best interest to establish better professional boundaries, even with the best intentions.

In general if your interaction with someone who is or was a patient isn't happening while you are on the clock, it is NOT a professional relationship. If someone is no longer your patient, it is NOT a professional relationship. The relationship should end when that person is no longer your patient, otherwise you are crossing boundaries.

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2 hours ago, L.P.CNA said:

Thank you TriciaJ, but the patient is not young he's over 50 years old. He's in his right state of mind with no dementia or anything. He told his mom that I had the card and she took it upon herself to call and ask for the card. He didn't know that she had done that until I told him.

She should have contacted you, not your employer.

I agree with @TriciaJ and I bet @caliotter3 is right about the mother's intent.

Harsh but you should sever ties with this patient, and be cautious about getting this close with a patient again. The damage could have been a lot worse.

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Side note: I hope you did not let the patient know that you got fired, or gave the impression that his mother contacting the employer got you fired. His mother might call your former employer again and they might take further action.

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On 5/12/2020 at 2:24 PM, KatieMI said:

I witnessed a case when I was covering SNFs. The patient had independent income and was an avid collector. As it happens in SNFs, patient grew closer with some staff members and gave them his card to buy things for him, including expensive collectables, sometimes staff members were driving to local antiques fairs and stores when off work to get them. Everybody saw it as a harmless folly of an elderly gentleman. When family found it out, they sued the facility and tried to prove that the Psychiatry provider tried to drug the patient out of his mind and facility was paving his way by allowing staff access to money at the time when patient was "under influence" of meds in order to keep those collectibles. That was laughable by itself, but during the discovery phase they found multiple little inconsistencies in assessments and psychotropic meds prescriptions and administration, so it was not possible to prove that nothing evil and malignant at all was really going on.The lawsuit was settled out of Court somehow but there was mass termination of everyone involved and Psychiatry office (with excellent physician) losing privileges in that SNF. As far I understand, it was just a little slap on the finger and only the Lord knows what would happen if family had got a stronger legal team.

So it can go both ways?

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You know what is ironic? If you were his home health aide it could of been apart of your job description. As a CNA you can't or at least you would get into big trouble if you cooked a meal at home for a patient. If you are a health aide you may have to, even you can barely boil water.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.
55 minutes ago, DesiDani said:

You know what is ironic? If you were his home health aide it could of been apart of your job description. As a CNA you can't or at least you would get into big trouble if you cooked a meal at home for a patient. If you are a health aide you may have to, even you can barely boil water.

I’m not understanding your comparison at all.

In your scenario, the person is still a patient. In OPs scenario, the person was no longer a patient when this happened.

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Specializes in LTC/Rehab, General Hospital Medical.

I don't have much to add. And while the situation was not professional/"correct", it was very wholesome of you. We need more of that in this bad world. ❤️

Good luck finding another job. I'd love to have someone like you, with your kind heart as a CNA at my LTC. ❤️

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8 hours ago, DTWriter said:

She should have contacted you, not your employer.

I agree with @TriciaJ and I bet @caliotter3 is right about the mother's intent.

Harsh but you should sever ties with this patient, and be cautious about getting this close with a patient again. The damage could have been a lot worse.

Precisely my thoughts although I did not express them. Obviously your personal phone number was available so she could have called you to discuss the matter instead of putting you in jeopardy with your employer. She knew what would probably happen, and probably that was her intent. One of the unpleasant consequences of overstepping professional boundaries.

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5 hours ago, JadedCPN said:

I’m not understanding your comparison at all.

In your scenario, the person is still a patient. In OPs scenario, the person was no longer a patient when this happened.

DesiDani is stating what could have been the situation, had the OP been employed to care for the pt. She is not saying that was actually the case.

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