Student nurse gives out number to patient !

Nurses General Nursing

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This weekend I was team leader. When I went to do my rounds I noticed that the patient had a buisness card with one of my nursing classmates number on it. I was completly shocked and disappointed. :nono:

I asked her when she was done with him can she step out into the hall way so that I can talk to her privately. I told her that it is inapproapiate to give patients our personal info. I told her this was unsafe and that in the real world this can have really bad consquences. She is really a nice girl and didn't think anything of it. The patient was a senior man with cancer, although I don't think he'd have enough strength to stalk her persay I still told her that she is to never do this. I was assertive about it and she told me she was glad that I brought this to her attention. The patients nurse overheard me talking with her and she also reprimanded the student and told her in the real world she can get fired, sued, and etc. My question is : Have you or a nurse you know of ever did something as dangerous as this ?

Specializes in LTC, Acute Care.
An old man and a younger student nurse is creepy.

:down:

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Specializes in LTC, Acute Care.
That buisness though. Once again the student was not handing out buisness cards of her own. She just wrote her number on a random one. When I asked why, she told me that she was afraid to say no and did not want to hurt his feelings. She said that she felt like she was backed in a corner and could not let the patient down:uhoh21:.

I see....

I hope she learns to say no quickly.

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Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.
That buisness though. Once again the student was not handing out buisness cards of her own. She just wrote her number on a random one. When I asked why, she told me that she was afraid to say no and did not want to hurt his feelings. She said that she felt like she was backed in a corner and could not let the patient down:uhoh21:.

She will learn how to say no in time :)

Hopefully...

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I have exchanged personal info with a patient a time or two. For me, it's been about both other business opportunities and at least twice I can recall it was to exchange recipes. One of my best friends from college swapped info with a patient and a year or so later ended up marrying him!

That is all quite different though from feeling obligated to share info or being afraid to tell the patient no. In that case, I'd suggest helping your classmate with figuring out ways to say no that she could use in the future should she find herself in that situation. I agree with the other poster who suggested this as a good teaching opportunity for your instructor!

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I have recieved the address of one of my nurses. I had sent her a thank you to the hospital and that christmas I recieved a christmas card from her, with her address in the return address on it. since then we exchange them each year. however that is the extent of our interaction. Sometimes if she sees me in the hospital she will say hi to me and sees how I am doing. once despite the fact that she had come to the waiting room to let her husband know how thier daughter had done in surgery. She still took the time to talk to me and make sure everything was ok with me.

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I only gave my number once to a lady that I cared for in an assisted living facility. The reason being was that she had practically known me since I was a baby and was a good friend of my parents. She would call me about once a week and I actually enjoyed visiting with her.

I would never give my number to a complete stranger though. There are all kinds of repercussions that could arise from that.

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Specializes in Home Health, Med/Surg.

Most of my home health patients have my number, but usually just for calls regarding our appointment times etc... But that being said I've had them for a while before I give it to them....Never in the begining...learned that lesson once! 3 am calls that someone is lonely makes you learn real quick! New patients get the office number until I know they aren't going to stalk me. Somtimes it's just easier if they call me directly....on my cell of course. I also send all of them Christmas cards, with the office return address obviously.

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i have to really wonder about her common sense, and why in the world would she give them her business card? i think that you may want to bring this to her instructor this sounds a little to bizarre to be innocent

I agree. I think this student has boundary issues. At the bery least, she needs more instruction on what is and is not appropriate. I think this should be brought to her instructor.

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Specializes in ICU.
To delta32- I the student and I notified the instructor and to my surprise she did not get a critical u for this.

To Be More- I agree to disagree with your actions. There is no way I would hang out with a patient ! Whether you are male or female. Yes you may not be afraid of being stalked however what if you meet a crazy women that claims you did something to her just because you didn't want to be more then friends ?

Well different strokes for different fokes I see.

As for me I will NEVER give my personal info. to patients. If they need some other kind of support system then I would refer then to social work. I'm not trying to sound like an angel, I've had men that were patients ask me out or wanted my number and I politley told them no, and that we had a professional relationship.

I can certainly see in special circumstances when you befriend a patient. You make it sound like we're working in a PRISON. Come on,, specially with nurses who work in a small community, the patient's are going to run into you at the local walmart anyways... I just don't see it as horribly bad as you do.

*note... I worked as a prison guard at maximum security prison in Texas before I became a nurse,, ,and you remind me of a person that works for the prison.. talking like this.

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

I have given my number to a patient's daughter. I cared for her father for three weeks while he was in the hospital, they requested me. When he passed on, they invited me to the funeral but I wasn't able to go as it was a Muslim funeral but I didn't have a scarf to wear in the mosque, otherwise I would have went. They also invited me to the gathering they held 40 days after his death, I went to that. I watched them recite prayers and they had a dinner. They were very nice. I'm also facebook friends with another patient. She was a frequent flyer on my unit so I got to know her well.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Home Health.
Most of my home health patients have my number, but usually just for calls regarding our appointment times etc... But that being said I've had them for a while before I give it to them....Never in the begining...learned that lesson once! 3 am calls that someone is lonely makes you learn real quick! New patients get the office number until I know they aren't going to stalk me. Somtimes it's just easier if they call me directly....on my cell of course. I also send all of them Christmas cards, with the office return address obviously.

ALL of my homehealth patients have only my WORK cell number. If I need to make a call to one of them while Im at home, I use my fax line so they cant call me back. I dont want any of them calling me at home on my off hours.

I once did give my number to a lady I took care of off-and-on for years. We had somewhat became friends thru the course of care. We now keep in touch frequently and I hand down my daughter's clothes to her granddaughters. I do think there are a few rare exceptions.

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Specializes in Cardiac, ER.

Okay,...why was she giving this man her number? To be friends? To stop by and check his BP? To have him do some type of bussiness for her? WHY?

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