Social Media Quandary: Nurses and Patients

[Lorie Brown RN, MN, JD]

Lorie,

I post on Social Media frequently and I am a Nurse. I often communicate with people who were once under my care when they were a patient in my hospital. Some of my friends told me to stop doing this. Why? What's the problem? I really developed a friendship with some of these people and hate to hurt their feelings. Am I wrong?

---

In nursing, we have to be aware of professional boundaries. The nurse-patient relationship begins when you take care of the patient and ends when the patient is discharged. Any interaction with a patient after the discharge could be a violation of professional boundaries. I know it does not seem right but those boundaries are in place for a reason.

Maintaining a friendship with patients after the therapeutic relationship ends is a problem. It can be easy to develop a close relationship but it does need to end when your care and treatment of the patient ends.

Here's an example of why you don't want to cross boundaries. Several years ago, a nurse was taking care of an elderly couple at their home and they both entered assisted living. She continued the relationship by seeing them in the assisted living and at church. She claims was unaware that upon the couple's eventual passing, their house was left to the nurse.

It has been questioned because, as a health professional, we are in a position of power over our patients. By maintaining that relationship, she could have unduly influenced the couple to will her the residence.

It's good advice to not continue the relationship after the patient is discharged and equally prudent to never friend a patient or a family member on Facebook.

A great resource is from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing has a wealth of information on professional boundaries and social media. Professional Boundaries | NCSBN