Inappropriate Pt. Behavior?

I don't think the patient needs a note in their chart as much I think you need more experience in maintaining professional boundaries and assertiveness to take you forward in the beginning of your career.

I don't think the patient needs a note in their chart as much I think you need more experience in maintaining professional boundaries and assertiveness to take you forward in the beginning of your career.

I don't really understand what you mean, could you please elaborate?

I don't really understand what you mean, could you please elaborate?

I don't mean to put words in the OPs mouth but I think that she's referring to the fact that you you should have immediately stopped the pt from touching you.

And you probably should have tried to position yourself in a way that a pt would not be able to touch you in an inappropriate manner.

We, as professional nurses, need to set the tone and course of our interactions with pts firmly from the outset as much as possible.

I understand why you would feel so uncomfortable. If a patient (or anybody for that matter) does not have a valid reason to touch you, he/she should keep his/her hands completely off of you. It's called respect.

Thank you, vintagemother. I actually have many years of patient/client experience (beginning as a massage therapist, then as a case manager, and now as a clinic assistant). I think what tripped me up about this situation was how subtle it was, and it made me question whether or not I was "making a big deal of nothing". I've had patients who were WAY out of line, and I've had no qualms about either ending the interaction, or firmly telling them that they were being inappropriate. But the asking about the female anatomy didn't seem weird until the other thing happened, and that was so subtle it was like, maybe the patient didn't hear me? Maybe the patient is just nervous about getting a fingerstick (people get funny all the time about getting a fingerstick)? As for positioning myself in a different way, there's really no other way I could've positioned myself that would've prevented it from happening, since I needed to access the patient's finger. Please understand that even with my own experience, this caught me off guard. I think it can be easy for us to question our own gut feeling when we don't want to "overreact". From what I'm hearing, though, this gut feeling that the patient was being inappropriate was enough for me to take action (set boundaries, possibly let my supervisor know). That's the question I had. Thank you!

He may not have meant the knee touch in a bad way. But I can tell you I've never had a pt touch my knee. Though I have hugged pts, been struck (not hurt) etc.

I think it's mostly about having "feelers" or "antennae" out to determine a pts tendencies or intentions and deflecting in an assertive non condemning manner.

Yes, I agree, sometimes we have to position ourselves in a manner that involves somewhat close proximity to the pts body.

The knee touch was too close for comfort though I think and I wish it hadn't happened.

Have you thought of ways to prevent this from occurring in the future?

Too much thought into this.

"get your hand off my knee". If the patient does not get their hand off your knee.. call security.

Vintage mother pretty much explained what I meant.

Without knowing anything about the client, anything worth placing in the chart probably needed to be dealt with right there, or reported immediately. But placing something forever in their medical record over a "small action" that you weren't sure of the time nor felt the need to address at the time would be more of a learning moment in my opinion.

ETA if the patient intentionally violated a clear boundary, then I would report it.