giving your email to a patient, yes or no?

[Sterren]

I had a patient recently that I really connected with. After we discharged her, I wondered how she was doing and wished I'd given her my email address or something so that if she were comfortable with it, she could update me on how things were going for her.

I wondered, though, about the ethics of doing something like this? Is it okay to share your email address with a patient? This is the first time I've ever been tempted to do so, she was just such a great person and going through something really hard. For her part she asked if it was possible for me to float to the unit I discharged her to, so I could continue to be her nurse, and she asked me to come and visit her while she was still hospitalized. So I believe that the connection/bonding/whatever term you want to use went both ways.

Thoughts?

[roser13, ASN, RN]

why couldn't she give her work email? I know my friend got the email of her clinic nurse when she found out she was having twins (the nurse also had twins). at first i thought eek..... what is that nurse thinking. but honestly you won't find a bigger fan of that clinic than my friend. Im all about boundries but i also think that it means a lot to patients to feel 'cared' about. I don't think its always inappropriate to acknowledge that you do care while still keeping that boundary.

Are you in the nursing profession? Do you know whereof you speak?

I'm guessing not.

[Zookeeper3]

Even this internet site has a warning prior to posting to remind us of the risks of providing personal information. My employer would have the proverbial cow.

So no.

[healthstar, BSN, RN]

I have learned in school that you cannot give or take a phone number, email, fax # or anything like that while in the hospital setting. But if by chance you get to see your patient at a store or any other place it is okay to exchange information.

[FlyingScot, RN]

I probably should have clarified that I work in an ambulatory oncology clinic now and because I do not have a dedicated phone number it is sometimes necessary for patients to contact me via e-mail and vice-versa. The difference is that these are patients we see sometimes on a weekly basis so there really is no termination of the nurse/patient relationship. In additon the e-mails are strictly professional (usually regarding scheduling issues and pharmacy problems). We will call to do welfare checks (ie missed an appointment and making sure things are okay). I never e-mail a patient for personal reasons and they absolutely do not have my home e-mail.

[thinwildmercury]

I'm a volunteer at a hospital and even we are not allowed to give out personal info. If asked, we may give out the hospital volunteer room's number/address/etc but ever our own and even we were taught that as soon as our shift end so does our relationship with the patients we volunteered for. I am going to guess that goes double for you. It's best to just not.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

Give your email. Then about a week from now, I guarantee you'll get an email asking for medical advice. You either a) give advice, opening you and your employer up to liability, or b) don't give advice, and when that Press Gainey survey comes in the mail, you get dinged.

If they want to say how they're doing, they know where they were in the hospital, they can call the floor and share updates that way.

[JessMunoz]

Well that's a tricky one, as would-be nursing student I cannot comment professionally but I can talk from the experience of my father's recent death from bowel cancer, he was treated in the UK and as he transitioned into having acute liver failure close to his death he was admitted to an 'acute care ward' (an inappropriate place for him but that's another story', he was in obvious pain and suffering and the nurses from his oncology ward who had seen him a lot as part of his treatment visited him in the acute care ward and came into the room and gave him a kiss on the cheek with tears in their eyes. I thought it was wonderful to see what a nice man they thought he was, one of the nurses then showed up at his funeral (she must have read the announcement of the funeral date etc in our local newspaper) - again I was touched and proud that she felt the urge to turn up to show her respects on behalf of the oncology nurses, a few of the nurses also mailed condolence cards to our house. So where palliative care and near death situations are concerned I think it's OK to offer a WORK email and a WORK telephone number and to follow up with quick visits to check on patients when you have spare time if you choose to do so. Terminally ill patients and their respective families and carers really value the support 9 times out of 10. This is the reason I want to be a palliative care nurse - I do understand that.

[linRdsNay]

I'm actually really surprised by all these "NO" answers...

My mother has been a nurse for over 40 years and she gives out her personal information regularly...Heck, more than half of the christmas cards we receive each year are from families my mother has gotten to know when their baby was in the hospital. Granted, most of these relationships develop because the baby is in the hospital for months, so my mother and the family have a long time to bond. She also gets emails from former patient's families regularly. Other nurses in her unit do the same thing to families that they've gotten to know. Maybe its a NICU thing, I dunno, but obviously if the hospital had an issue with this they would have said something years ago.

I'm just about to start my nursing career; I'm not saying that i will be so eager to hand out my personal information to patient's families but I'm not outright against the idea. I suppose I'd be more willing to give my work email address over anything else.

I can certainly understand and respect that most of you don't give out your information and I'm certainly not suggesting you start doing so. Like I said, I guess because I've grown up spending time outside the hospital with many of the families my mom has gotten to know and receiving all the letters and pictures from families that have since moved out of the area, I'm just surprised that this is such a frowned upon practice

[livelaughlove29]

I am not sure what to think. I had taken care of a young girl who desperately needed support in many ways. Her family was very distant from her due to her specific disease. Every time I came on shift and greeted her she would cry and be so happy that I was back. I talked to the other nurses about this and they said she never responded to them in this way. At the time of her dismissal she asked for my name and I gave it to her. I am not sure why she wanted it, and after I gave it I really started to wonder if I should have, however, she left and I have never heard back from her. There is a nurse that I work with that states our care continues even after dismissal ~ its called "continuity of care". I also read in a recent nursing magazine that following up with d/c patients is new and upcoming since it could possibly promote more compliance. However, it appears from 99% of the prior posts that this is not accepted. I would contact the board or HR.

[TDCHIM]

@livealaughlove29: You said you'd read an article about following up w/discharged patients. I'm wondering if the article was perhaps referring to maintaining contact in a professional sense (if in a friendly way), within professional boundaries? That has come up several times in my classes as a method of improving patient compliance.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

There is a reason that our nametags no longer carry our last names.

[mikeicurn, ASN, RN]

There is a nurse that I work with that states our care continues even after dismissal ~ its called "continuity of care". I also read in a recent nursing magazine that following up with d/c patients is new and upcoming since it could possibly promote more compliance. However, it appears from 99% of the prior posts that this is not accepted. I would contact the board or HR.

This is something different. When our ER discharges you, they fill out a form with contact information, then a nurse will do a "call back" within 48 hours to inquire as to how you are doing, any problems, etc... That is something very different from exchanging personal information. When my kids were little I told them that a good way to stay out of trouble would be to pretend I was standing behind them looking over their shoulder. If they wanted to do something, that they wouldn't do when I was standing there, then they probably shouldn't be doing it. If you wouldn't exchange personal information with your supervisor standing in the room, then you shouldn't be doing it. I am quite sure management would frown upon it.