Overreacting?

[SionainnRN]

So I work in an ER and a coworker helped me out by discharging a pt for me. She later said how she thought he was cute, nice, funny, etc. Well we were looking at our hospitals facebook page and saw that he had "checked in" and posted some pics of himself in the ER. She ended up sending him a note on fb saying she saw him on the fb page and was hoping he was feeling better, that it was a pleasure meeting him and his family cause they brightened her day and to take care.

Now is this icky, or is it the equivalent of a thank you note but just in a different media? I maybe just an old fuddy duddy.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

It's weird because the guy could interpret it badly and report her. At the least it could be considered harassment, unfortunately.

If the patient himself doesn't report it, however, then no one else should. The person who recommended it be reported to risk management needs to calm down. No one wants to work with a bunch of tattle-tale pasty prudes. If the patient had no problem with it, then no harm done. Why would someone report something that caused no harm just to ruin a coworkers career/life? Shameful.

If you read my post carefully, I suggested that it be brought to risk managment that the hospitals fb page has not a large amount of privacy settings. Therefore, anyone can take pictures at any time of themselves, other patients, nurses....post them and tag them. And that is a huge risk.

The nurse who sent messages to the patient has since apparently deleted her message, however, that is an entirely different issue. Which was a wise move, which you yourself pointed out, it could be considered harrassment. I certainly did not suggest anyone "report" her. The patient has the ability to do that himself should he choose to. If the nurse in question didn't want to brag about the fact that she messaged the patient, she would have kept that to herself. But that is on her.

And "tattle-tale pasty prude" or not (and I prefer old bat, or perpetually jaded BTW) this nurse does put the OP at risk, as it was the OP's patient originally, and the nurse who messaged the patient just was "helping out". Then re-involved the OP when letting her in on the messaging. Great. What was the OP to do with that information? Again, no one is saying "report her" however, I am curious if a comment is made by the patient if the Op would be in hot water as well???? Who knows. Poor judgement on the discharging nurse, poor judgement on the creators of the fb page to allow the public to post and tag and have an open page.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Keep you personal and work environments separate.....don't contact patients after they have left the hospital. Texting patients and getting their numbers is extremely unprofessional and if caught they can be fired or worse have their licenses acted upon for conduct unbecoming.

It is soooo not a good idea.

[laceym]

Hella weird....on both ends-hospital having a Facebook page and her responding.

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

If an MD had contacted the pt, instead of a nurse, we'd all recognize the inappropriateness of the situation.

We should hold ourselves to the same level of professionalism as any other healthcare provider.

[CaitlynRNBSN]

It's a little odd...but it's not like she did anything TERRIBLE. She wasn't hitting on him, asking for his number or whatever. Think about it, if it was a 85 year old man she did and said that to, most people wouldn't think twice about it. I'm guessing this is a young/good looking man. A little odd? yes, but something to be fired or disciplined for? no.

I would find it a little strange if my nurse did that, but I wouldn't think much of it. I had a patient request to be my friend on facebook one time. I just declined with a short message stating it was wonderful meeting you and your family but I would prefer to keep our relationship at a professional level and cannot risk getting in trouble. As long as it does not go beyond what she said I think it's not that bad. I wouldn't personally do it, but i wouldn't report it if i found out someone did. I don't believe that is HIPAA if he was the one who said he was there. It's not like she made it public, he made it public himself.

[CaitlynRNBSN]

Like I said, it's a little strange and probably should not have been done. But lets face it, no harm was done in this situation and there a million and 1 things I can think of that would be worse. Like if she would have said "It was nice taking care of you. I hope you're scrotum heals up real soon. Keep those stitches clean"....ugh, not good. No harm was done, it's not harassment, HIPAA I don't believe was violated. Maybe a little reminder not to do that from manager but, its whatever.