ethical question

Lets say you have a patient on the floor who had elective surgery, non life threatening. And lets say the pt had an attractive grandaughter that you struck up a conversation with, would it be unethical to ask said attractive grandaughter out for cocktails?

Of course! But cocktails? You're never alone with a beer!

No, this would not be unethical. When I was a young, new grad, the son of a patient offered me a ride home after work. We stopped at a coffee shop on the way and had a very nice conversation. Seems fine to me.

Originally posted by kewlnurse

Lets say you have a patient on the floor who had elective surgery, non life threatening. And lets say the pt had an attractive grandaughter that you struck up a conversation with, would it be unethical to ask said attractive grandaughter out for cocktails?

Before you engage in this activity you need to check out your nurse practice act in full. In my state, VA, this type of activity is not only considered unethical, but can lead to loss of licensure. Other states have similar restrictions. The consideration is fidelity to the nurse/patient relationship.

regards

chas

**********

Hypothetically speaking of course kewlnurse, right

You will probably not see this grandaughter in the hospital setting again.

So I say go for it and have fun, hypothetically speaking!

Too late, pt was discharged, well my "freind" tells me she was anyway, oh well. Thanks for the input everybody.

OK kewl,

The grandaughter of this pt. wouldn't be the reason for your other thread, "Is kissing a form of cheating?" now would it???

You are going to get such a smackdown!!!

Now we know what big blocks are for...CHEATERS...I was right

huh...

Feistynurse,

I enjoyed your article on boundaries. When I did CM on tech dependent kids, boundaries was one of the greatest problems we faced and like the article said, no one went into it with the intent to breach boundaries. We facilitated the placement of nurses from nursing agencies that provided in home attendant care to kids. There were TONS of opps for boundary violations (most of which were not sexual) but just as treacherous. We regularly lost nurses who, after having their boundaries breached were left with little else to do other than move on to other cases or other employment. Problems we had included: nurses doing farm chores for one family instead of caring for the child ("doing a favor" got way out of hand); parents directly scheduling with the nurse instead of going through the agency; loaning money and giving gifts to families; caregivers who became possessive of the child and resented not being the primary decision maker; caregivers who disclosed personal information about themselves to the family and then lived to regret it; families who wanted to know "personal information" about nurses--marital status, whether they smoked, religion--as a condition of having them take the case and on and on.

We concluded that many of these nurses just didn't know enough about boundaries, but I appreciated your article saying that home health is especially a difficult area to defend your boundaries. This was obviously a co-factor.

Kewl, he who hesitates is lost...

HOLY S***, KEWL!!! YOU'RE MARRIED!! Nursing ethics aside, my dear, please keep your marital 'ethics' in mind....eeep!!

What's going on w/you and your wife?...................

Dear NotsoKewlnow: Forget about the nurse part, it is never, I repeat NEVER ethical if you are married. Put your L.T. back in your scrubs and take a good look at your marriage. Sheesh!

I am going to support Charles, position and say at least check with your state Board of Nursing and case law. How a regulation is interpreted depends not only on the actions against nurses by the Board of Nursing but also other forms of case law including criminal and tort.

I know of boundary cases that were never pursued by the BON after the DA got a conviction. One include stalking, another was action against the nurse's homeowners policy.

Yeah, it was a freind who was asking.

Hey, Kewl, at least a beer doesn't complain when you finish and pick up another one!

Actually, the association occurred as a direct result of the nurse/patient relationship and could influence the care of the patient or lack of care of other patients. The ethics still apply regardless of the relationship to the patient. Such is the broad interpretation in VA, not CA.

chas