Duty to inform?

[angeloublue22]

I have a question and I have researched all over the internet to find the answer but I could find no definitive answer. I'm hoping that some of you may have some insight into the legality and/or ethical issue. I work at a chemical addiction detox facility and we have a separate residential dependency unit in which patients share a room with 4-5 other individuals, and the nurses in detox also oversee this unit when needed. We are unable to treat registered sex offenders due to our location to a school and public park or at least that was the original plan. In detox we still don't take sex offenders but the residential program just signed a contract with corrections in order to take those on probation for their court mandated treatment. Many are coming right from prison.

Anyway, it came about that the staff found out that they were treating a registered sex offender in the residential program and everyone was angry that they weren't told of his status, especially since the house has both females and males all sharing the same areas and they have limited staff to watch the clients. This became a big issue with employees threatening to quit. They had a meeting and management stated that they didn't need to disclose his status because staff didn't need to know. Although, I beg to differ because it would make employees more vigilante for our clients and increase safety. I have no problem treating sex offenders because I did it frequently working in prison, but I think in this case with the patients all living in a house together without a lot of supervision is not a best case scenario and could lead to someone getting hurt and a lawsuit waiting to happen.

All I kept thinking about was when my friend worked in a child psych unit, the staff was not told about a young sex offender's history and he was given a roommate in which he raped at night and it wasn't until after the incident that they found out his status, which management knew about. Management still said it was need to know and they did it to prevent discrimination. Ethically, I think the harm of a client is more important than worry of discrimination.

Does anyone have any information on the legality of duty to inform staff of sex offender status to prevent harm to other clients and staff? Does the management have the obligation to divulge this information to staff?

I know this may be a complicated issue.

I would really appreciate your thoughts. Thank you.

[angeloublue22, BSN, RN]

Yep, that's how my psych hospital handled this as well and that's why I couldn't believe this happened.

[angeloublue22, BSN, RN]

Since registered sex offender status is a matter of public record I really don't understand management needing to keep this information from staff. Especially since you have vulnerable people in your facility, why wouldn't you do the utmost to keep them safe? You are right. This is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

I didn't read anything in your original post that any of your patients were there involuntarily. That would add another element to the situation. People who don't have the choice to leave the facility should have the expectation of safety.

It is a voluntary unit with some having to come with threat of jail or prison time. It is not locked and patients sometimes get caught leaving and coming back with no staff chaperone because the lack of staff and safe protocols that prevents employees from keeping track of the clients, which also makes it worse with our proximity to 2 schools and parks within easy walking distance.