Have you ever had a pt that you knew in real life?

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I was just wondering if this ever happened and what is the right thing to do. Let's say you are working and a person you know (friend, neighbor) is brought on to your floor. Would you accept them as a pt under your direct care or would it be better for another nurse to care for them? What if they wanted you to be their nurse? Would you, or could you, take that assignment?

Specializes in home health, dialysis, others.

I have had the circumstance of taking care of well-known persons, such as actors and sports figures, political people, major business owners, etc., as well as one of my favorite instructors from nursing school. Sometimes there is no choice. I wouldn't want to be assigned to a family member (although I once started my own son's IV !).

My instructor needed acute dialysis (this was almost 30 years ago). She was awake and oriented, and I was sure she was watching my sterile technique - she taught it to me! Later when she was less acute, she told me that she was so glad to see a familiar face, and she knew that I knew my 'stuff', that she was able to relax for the first time in a few days. She always requested me, and we developed an excellent relationship. She told everyone how proud she was to have had a hand in my education. It was a very humbling time for me.

I also took care of the father of a male patient I once had who died very young. When the family realized who I was - it was at least 5 years later, and at a different hospital - they were very pleased to see me. I often think that a familiar face does a world of good for most people.

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Specializes in ER/Trauma, Corrections, Consulting.

I work in the ER so it's inevitable in my small town that I'll care for a friend or family member. I always make it a point when I first assume care to tell them that I "never saw them" and make sure they know that me the nurse isn't the same person that I am outside of work, that I won't tell anyone I even saw them and I pass no judgements. Often they request that I do take care of them because they are at ease with me. I think by addressing privacy from the beginning it avoids any unspoken concerns they may have had when they saw me.

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Specializes in Clinicals in Med-Surg., OB, CCU, ICU.

This has actually has occurred several times for me. In my case, they were patients who were from my county where I had lived when I was a teenager. The patients were fathers of high school classmates of my brothers. We both acknowledged each other, as well as the family and they had no issue with being there nurse for the day. I work in one of the two hospitals which benefit from the surrounding smaller populated counties. I lived in one of those farm counties which had a population of 10,000. It is no stretch of the imagination that one would be aware of most of the families and be familiar with who is who. I believe a certain given trust was already established. In providing care, I followed HIPPA. I have not disclosed the fact I provided nursing care to these individuals to my family or friends. Now with that being said, I believe one would be presented with more issues if the patient was a close friend or family member. I believe in this case, I would go with my intuition. If it didn't feel right, then I simply would decline.:up:

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Specializes in Geriatrics, WCC.

Years ago when I was doing the last of my clinicals in nursing school, i was assigned my ex-husband as a patient in the hospital. I asked what they do in situations like that and was told unless there was a problem, they take who they are assigned. I not only took care of him that day but, the next two days. My instructor was happy that i had not backed out and gave him the same care i would anyone else.

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Yes. I had a patient who was my mother's friend husband and I new him because mom invited them one time to my house. Such a nice couple, such a nice guy! But I didn't know he had AIDS -neither mom. I work ER in a local hospital very close to my house and this couple live close to my house; therefore, he uses this hospital. The guy was seating talking with the triage nurse when I said to my self "I know this guy", he smiled but I couldn't remember who was him. I had two rooms empty and the charge nurse gave me this patient reporting suicidal thoughts. I started reading his history before I went to his room when I remembered his name. I talked to the charge nurse and I refused to take care of him. But, why I even couldn't talk to him? I just smiled every time I passed by, but I never say I know you, how are you? Nothing! I was mute!

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Specializes in LTC Family Practice.

In small towns it's unavoidable, and I worked in a small town in the Family Practice Clinic where all three docs worked, it was impossible to not Know your patient.

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I too work in a small hospital in a very small community. Most of my patients are people I know and more often than not, I'm related to them through my husband. They are often suprised to see me, but like so many others have already posted, happy to see a familiar face. As for word getting out that I took care of someone in the ER - my husband will come home from work and say that so and so stopped in and told him I was there nurse. They're always shocked that my husband had no clue :-)

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

Working as a Patient Care Tech in my hometown, made it darn near impossible NOT to care for someone I knew personally. I actually took care of my 12th grade Geometry teacher, roughly 3 years after taking his class. I don't like taking care of people I know personally. however, the only time I flat out refused to care for a patient was when the boyfriend of a girl I'd worked with the year previously came into the hospital with cardiac problems. I actually quit working in the nursing home as a CNA because I was so afraid of her. She made my life a living hell, and even threatened bodily harm to me at one point, (she was over a foot taller than me and roughly 100lbs heavier than me) and I had taken care of her boyfriend until the day i walked into his room doing my initial rounds and saw her sitting there. I went to the nurse in charge and told her that I couldn't care for the man because of a conflict of interest, I knew his girlfriend. I didn't tell her that the woman threatened to beat the snot out of me the year previously, and was giving me the evil eye once I walked through the door. Looking back, I suppose I should have said something, but being 22 years old and still frightened of her, I just did what I thought was best. :lol2:

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

I don't work on a floor right now, but i've cared for friends in the past. I just do my job and treat them with the same professionalism as i would a patient that is a stranger to me. Of course, as prev mentioned - if they need to have something invasive done i'll always offer to get them another nurse - but more often than not the idea of being comfortable with someone outweighs embarrassment and they want me to do whatever procedure needs to be done.

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I think it's worthwhile to draw a distinction between people you "know" and people with whom you have (or have had in the past) some kind of significant relationship. I live in a rural area myself, and would never suggest that the standard is that you can not provide care for anyone you've ever met before, know who their family is, went to school with them, etc. Esp. in small towns, where everyone knows everyone, that would be an unreasonable expectation. I think that's a different issue from providing care to a family member or close friend. It's a pretty standard ethical expectation across the healthcare spectrum (physicians, psychologists, everyone I'm aware of) that you don't treat your own family or close friends, and I believe that is a good rule to follow.

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Specializes in Tele.
I was just wondering if this ever happened and what is the right thing to do. Let's say you are working and a person you know (friend, neighbor) is brought on to your floor. Would you accept them as a pt under your direct care or would it be better for another nurse to care for them? What if they wanted you to be their nurse? Would you, or could you, take that assignment?

I actually had my daughter in the hospital and the nurse was someone who I worked with back in the days when I was a nursing assistant, back in the day she was a nursing assistant too.

we catched up on old times, and talked about everything, she was surprised that I had a baby because we always talked about waiting till we were 35 to have kids, and I was 25 when I had mine!

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Specializes in acute rehab, med surg, LTC, peds, home c.

This has happened to me quite a few times. Sometimes I can take the pt, like when it was an elderly confused pt who happened to be an old friend of the family. That was OK. But when it was a young, somewhat cute friend of friend who I had met at parties and who needed to be straight cathed--no deal. I wasn't taking him. I traded him off and I think it was for the best. We both would have been uncomfortable.

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