Past patient relationship

Nurses Relations

Published

So I'll start off saying I'm a student close to finishing my degree. I took care of a patient not to long ago and bonded a bit with her and her family. She's a high school student with a few family issues and health issues. She was discharged but recently we ran into each other again and I offered her my phone number as she's still going through a lot of stuff in her life. I'm now kind of regretting doing that as I know we should never cross the patient-nurse relationship. She hasn't used my number yet and I don't have hers so I can't say I've changed my mind. I've considered changing my number just because I don't want to get in trouble so close to graduating. Am I blowing this to far out of proportion? Should I not worry about her having my number? Should I change my number? I'm just kind of confused as to where the boundary line is as I'm no longer her nurse but because she's underage I feel like maybe it's safer to just change my number and drop contact.

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Chances are high that she will never call you, but if it were me, for my own peace of mind in the same circumstances, I would change my number. Easy solution to this. Try to keep from making a habit of giving out your number. You will avoid all kinds of problems if you keep your private number private.

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Yeah I pretty much instantly regretted giving out my number. I guess you could say it was a moment of weakness. I had a bad day, ran into her and we talked and it just kind of came out.

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I'm still pretty worried about the whole situation. Could I fail my course because of this?

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

Are you going to tell your instructor? It was a mistake. A learning experience. A momentary emotional lapse in judgement. Perhaps come forward to your teacher and ask how to proceed. It happened outside school hours so unlikely to have a direct effect

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See right now that's where I'm torn because we just finished our rotation. The only thing left to do is write the exam and get our marks back so I'm not sure if it's even worth bringing up! I'm just worried that if I don't bring it up now it might bite me in the butt later if she finds out and thinks I intentionally kept it from her.

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

Then go talk to her. Use it as a teaching moment. Id not worry since the teen didn't contact you. You are only making yourself crazy right now with what it's?

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Specializes in Psych.

If I had a dollar for every time I did something stupid and later regretted it I'd be driving the same kinda cars as my doctors right now. Mistakes are going to happen and that's going to be part of the learning process. The fact that you recognize that you made a mistake without it being pointed out is a good sign. Don't get worked up over something that hasn't even happened. She hasn't contacted you and probably never will. No need to change your number yet. Even if she does contact you just explain that you had made a mistake and that you unfortunately can not socialize with her.

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Specializes in ORTHO, PCU, ED.

Maybe I'm too laid back about stuff but I personally think you're overreacting. Settle down - I really think it's going to be fine. As others said, just learn from it and move on.

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