BehavioralRN

Yeah. I just listen. Working at this place for over 3 years now the amount of dysfunction belongs in a lifetime series. It is a gilded cage situation though for many of us. I am passionate about my patients but he was Just my patient a year ago at this same building. I think sobriety is 6 months here per policy which is ridiculous...but that's the detox nurse in me still speaking. I've seen tons of year+ relapses. Basically everyone is letting him act inappropriate because they don't want to be accused of targeting him. It's just going to blow up in our faces at some point and just need to wait for it to happen.

Several female staff (nurses and MHCs) have already told me in confidence he makes them uncomfortable and has poor boundaries. He'll purposefully place himself in extremely close proximity and ask things such as, "does this make you uncomfortable?" It's all very ridiculous. Unit manager (he'll be fired or leave within a few months) responded to one complaint by promoting an unsafe sexist/blame game culture by telling that staff, "you have to tell him, men don't get it". My work place is dysfunctional at best. I'm also the only one willing to go to HR but I haven't witnessed my coworkers experiences but trust them completely.

He was a patient there last early last year and multiple times I admitted him on the detox unit in 2016. So not very long ago. He is a mental health counselor and not under any monitoring I know of.

He literally was a patient at this facility but we are supposed to pretend we don't know that... management is handling this all in a very odd way. Yeah... I was thinking minimal but professional interaction. He even works on a unit he used to be a patient on and has come in contact with previous patients he used to be a peer of. I find this incredibly disturbing as contraband is already a large problem and he's friends with detox patients and could easily smuggle things if he wanted to. Not saying he would, but...Just doesn't seem like healthy boundaries at all.

Just trying to get a feel about this. I work in ATS detox and now mostly an adult psychiatric unit. I just saw a patient I used to admit multiple times on detox start a job on my psych floor. This feels very uncomfortable for me, as I know this person's intimate details and now? He's one of the team. Has anyone ever had to work with their old patients? I've seen this persons...well... everything. Am I just supposed to block all that out? He looks nervous whenever he sees me, like I might recognize him. I haven't yet talked to him except for a wave hello and I can see him slink away. Is this common? Any thoughts?