Treating an Opposite sex patient from your community....stories please!!!

I'm not sure you would really have a choice. I guess you could talk to your charge nurse about a conflict of interest, but I can tell you, working in a small community hospital in the town i grew up in, I've had more than a couple people as patients that I knew from outside the hospital, and it would have caused all kinds of headaches to try to rearrange my assignment.

The most important thing is to remain professional, set boundaries, and make sure that you keep any information you have access to as a result of treating someone you know confidential.

I work in a small community hospital. I run in to people at Wal-Mart that I have treated, or a family member of patient's I have treated. I have even cared for people that I know from my community and don't like them as a person. The thing you have to keep in mind is that they are in your care at what is one of the most vulnerable times in their lives. They could be hurt, in pain, completely unable to do anything for themselves. It is not a matter of if you could be attracted to them or if you hate them. It is all about the job you need to do, being professional, setting professional boundaries and limitations. In a small town it becomes a personal and professional liability if you can't separate personal from professional limits...and these limits may still need to be in place after the patient is discharged. As I mentioned before, being in Wal-Mart seeing a former patient can be tricky. I never approach them, sometimes I go out of my way to scoot around a corner. Their friends and families that might be with them may never have known they were in the hospital, and it is not for me to decide. If they approach me or say hello, I will say hello, and be cordial, but that is pretty much where it ends.

Back when I was much younger I was assigned a male patient who was part of my regular social circle. There was no attraction between us of any sort (at least on my end, and I really don't think on his end either). He was in for something testicular..can't recall what. At the beginning of the shift I asked him if he would rather have someone else assigned to him, he declined. My supervisor was aware of the situation. I kept any business south of the waist very professional, and I believe I was extra professional with him throughout the shift...no joking around, no talking about our mutual friends or social activities...just patient nurse conversation. It all worked out fine, and our conversation about the whole encounter later was "How are you doing?"

I think that, for the most part, there would be no problem...and I think pts are always happy to see a familiar face-one thing that might come up--since you were "friends", pt or family may try to get case hx info/prognosis out of you...

You absolutely have to be able to separate your personal feelings from your profession. When you walk through those doors and take report, what happens within those walls STAYS within those walls as well as whatever goes on on the other side of those walls can't follow inside. The goal within the healthcare setting is to help the sick heal. If you can't keep personal from affecting professional, you shouldn't be a nurse.

I run into patients of mine from the ob/gyn office I worked at for many years and some of them I got very close to at the office, within that context, however, when I bump into them in public, I also try to avoid them noticing me, or will avoid eye contact unless they acknowledge me first, and then I make ABSOLUTELY no references EVER as to how I know them. I also don't intruduce my husband or kids to them. Sometimes my family feels I'm rude to do that, but I really care for my patients on a nurse-patient level and would NEVER jeopordize their trust as their nurse. It's just the right and respectful thing to do.