Ethical question-being friends with a patient

[tharris22]

Hello I am a new RN and new to this forum (my first post!). I have a question. My friend has me really freaked out about this so I have to get it off of my chest.

Last year, when I was a nursing student I had a clinical rotation on a substance abuse unit. Since I am a recovering alcoholic myself (3 yrs sober!) I really liked the rotation because I could really relate to what they were going through. One of the pts was a young man, three years younger than me. Over a matter of weeks we became friends. I shared my sobriety story with him, thinking that it might help him. We decided to attend an AA meeting together after he was discharged. We attended meetings a few times and are still great friends (no dating went on).

My school did not review ethical standards very well, because it never even crossed my mind that this was wrong. I was not a licensed nurse yet, and just felt like a student who met someone that I had a common bond with. I wanted to share my hope with this new friend, that he could be sober too. My intentions were good, although now I realize it must have been remarkably unprofessional.

I told my friend this the other day and she completely freaked me out! She said that I could lose my license for being friends with this person and that I could have been kicked out of nursing school!

Now that I am an actual RN, I have learned much more about crossing boundaries. I am so excited about my new career and I don't want this incident to come back and bite me in the butt. I was just trying to help, I promise!

Any comments..? Please be easy on me

[mianders, RN]

I work in an infusion suite and give a lot of chemotherapy. When my mom was diagnosed with cancer for the second time she was told she would have to go through more chemotherapy. She decided she did not want to do it unless I gave her the chemo. I went to the hospital administration and discussed it with them. They approved it and I gave my mother her chemo. There are times in a lot of nurses careers when they take care of someone they have a personal relationship with. Especially as one poster said you live in a small community. It is definately not an issue without concerns though.

[locolorenzo22, BSN, RN]

You wouldn't lose your license unless you ABUSED that relationship and became guilty of fraud, theft, etc.....and convicted of same.

However, there are those patients you meet that you run into from time to time in public. They'll flag you down, and as long as you are respectful of boundries, there is no reason why they couldn't become a friend.

However, once you have that relationship, it would violate your boundries to be their nurse. So unless you have express permission, it's probably better to not be their nurse at all....just my .02 cents.

[DutchgirlRN, ASN, RN]

welcome to all nurses!

[StephanieOh]

Here is what happened to me.

I did form a solid, platonic friendship with a former patient and my former employer reported me to the BON. I did not lose my license, but they required me to take eduction courses on boundaries and how violations can occur. It was interesting, indeed, but the whole ordeal has left a very bad feeling in my soul.

Nursing has changed so much over all of the years that I have worked as an RN. It was traumatic to be called into the BON and be interviewed by 4 people for 2 hours. Again, my license was not affected at all..but it also left me feeling nervous about making mistakes and I am fearful of being out of the "zone of helpfulness" and being not involved enough. I dont recommend it, as it was terribly stressful.