Does this cross line of maintaining professional boundaries?

[soregonnurse]

A developmentally disabled patient had about a hundred hard rock-like objects in her Attends which the head nurse claimed were absorbant beads from her Attends. Her family member has legal guardianship of her. Another nurse was discussing this with the guardian who requested a sample of the objects to take to patient's doctor to identify what they were (the head nurse took no samples, only this other nurse, because she didn't believe they were absorbant beads). The other nurse asked if she could call the guardian after the appointment to see what they were. They were not absorbant beads. Since the other nurse called from her home phone does this violate professional boundaries?

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

I am having a hard time following. Is this person a resident of a facility that you work for? If so, wouldn't you get a report from the MD on what the outcome of the resident's appointment was? And yes, ultra absorbent briefs do have a substance in them that make them that way,and they can have the appearence of clear beads. However, one has to go a great deal of time without changing the brief to have a blow out such as what you describe. (there were "super absorbent" baby diapers at one time that this happend especially overnight, and not sure if they are still like that or not) Sounds to me like your co-worker was trying to perhaps cover her rear in that the resident didn't get peri-care? In any event, in my opinion, one should never call a family member from home to inquire. She could certainly find out that information when she got back to work. Guilty conscience perhaps.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

I don't know why any nurse would ever WANT to call a patient/guardian from home after hours. You're not working and now the patient has your home phone number (because who doesn't have caller ID these days?)... I call patients all the time from home as a home health nurse but I have a separate cell phone number that I use for these calls and if I'm not working, it's off. Everyone has the on-call number if they really need to reach a nurse, if I'm not working, they're not reaching me....