Ok, I find this strange. I've always separated my work life from my private life.. but I live & work in a small community, and I think lines get blurred a little bit. Personally, I prefer to keep lines as separate as possible. Not all my coworkers feel this way, and that makes things a little awkward. (I have a coworker/friend that accepts friend requests from anyone!)
This weekend, I discharged a mom/baby couplet, and I received today a friend request from the mother with a very nice note stating that I was her favorite nurse and she saw me on one of my coworker's myspace pages.
I keep my page private (visible to friends only), and I really only accept friend requests with people that I know and trust. I don't feel comfortable allowing a patient into my personal page. How should I handle this professionally and politely? I'd like to deny the request, but because of the small-town area (and the fact that she's in my age group) I need to do this tactfully!!
Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.
I would just not accept or deny the request. I would leave it alone and pretend I never got it. Maybe she will forget that she sent the request?
Yeah, but I think you have to do SOMETHING with it or it just kinda sits there. =) Or maybe it disappears after a while... I don't know, I just get annoyed having things in my various "inboxes" that I don't want there anymore.
Specializes in Med/Surg, Tele, IM, OB/GYN, neuro, GI.
I don't think I would accept the request for the reasons the above posters said.
I have a MySpace page and I have my name changed (so people can't search for me), my comments, friends, and last login all hidden (it also hides your age and location) so know one can see these things (even my friends). My page is public but I have everything that I don't want known private. Doing a search on google can do all of these things so if you decided to be her "friend" she wouldn't be able to see anything other than what's on your layout.
Specializes in EMS~ ALS.../...Bartending ~ Psych :).
I'm sure that the patient isn't aware of the "ethical" issues involved, she just thought you were a rockin' nurse and wanted to be friends.. Feel proud, you did a good job....
Just deny the request without explaination, (no matter how tackful, if she doesn't understand the issues it could lead to hurt feelings) If your paths cross again and she mentions it, just say sorry, you didn't realize that she had sent a request, that you get a million and one request, and have very little time, to get read them all and you just automatically hit "delete all" without even looking at them........ nuff said........
She just had a baby, she will totally be able to relate to being busy......
I wouldn't deny the request, I just wouldn't accept the request. Just ignoring the request is what I do with people I don't really want as friends, but don't feel they quite deserve a "deny." And you can also plead, "Oh, I must have missed the request, I get so many spam requests!" if you ever run into them.
Specializes in CVICU, CCU, MICU, SICU, Transplant.
Ya know, I think I'm the only person in the United States that doesnt have a Myspace/Facebook account. Maybe I'm better off for it? Maybe I'm just anti-social? :)
However, I like the idea someone had for keeping a separate myspace page strictly for work-related things. It seems like a very tactful solution.
Specializes in Hem/Onc, LTC, AL, Homecare, Mgmt, Psych.
You could even just email her back with the denial (the mom) say thanks but that your department or physicians office would not approve of or allow that type of correspondance with a patient or former patient (on facebook, myspace) due to HIPPA privacy regulations or something like that??? Which I guess would be kinda true, someone can correct me. I'm sure she's signed tons of HIPPA papers so the term would not be foreign. I agree that a professional boundary should be kept.
Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
with all due respect, why even bother having a myspace if you keep it private? it obviously doesn't deter people from adding you...
actually, that is what a private myspace page does. people can still search for you, and request to have you add them (there are only mutual "addings." one cannot add a person without his or her permssion). but all that is seen if a non-friend views the page is the default picture, headline, status, age, gender and location...which is very easy to keep professional if done discreetly. there are also settings that can change whether or not people can search for you.
I had no intention whatsoever of actually accepting the friend request from her (felt like it was crossing too many lines to me!) but I needed to know what would be an appropriate & polite way to decline.
I have denied her request, and rather than sending any note back, I let my co-worker (who has added her) know that I thought it was weird & that I felt uncomfortable adding a patient of mine into what I consider my private life... gossip tends to travel fast in this small town. And, hopefully, by telling my coworker my perspective, she'll think twice before adding patients in the future!!!
I received a thank-you message on MySpace from a patient -- her sister is best friends with one of our ER doc's sisters (follow that? LOL), so she found me through his page (he's one of my MySpace friends). That was the first and only time a patient has contacted me through MySpace, and it was just a nice thank-you note for taking such good care of her; thank goodness that's all it was. If I did get a friends request, I'd decline it, and be truthful about why -- I keep personal life and work life separate. I also keep my MySpace and Facebook pages private.
And my rule of thumb -- I don't put anything online anywhere, private or not, that I wouldn't want my mom to read.
NurseCard, ADN
2,850 Posts
Yeah, but I think you have to do SOMETHING with it or it just kinda sits there. =) Or maybe it disappears after a while... I don't know, I just get annoyed having things in my various "inboxes" that I don't want there anymore.