What would you have done?

[NJNursing]

Ok we had this patient the past 2 weeks. He's a professional athlete who had a of things go wrong during his admission. As charge nurse (and for the first week or so I knew nothing about him other than some people relayed to him as a PITA) I felt compelled to help smooth things over. So last week I went in to introduce myself and try to make his stay better. Everyone (administration included) were bending over backwards for this guy, so needless to say I payed extra attention to him to make sure his needs (physical, emotional, etc) need were met and he's really a nice guy and I enjoyed talking to him. He's very far from home and it's the holidays. He had a lot of people's cell phone numbers (mine included in case any issues arose when I was off - i'm the only 'official' night charge). On saturday he called me up (my day off) and asked if I could pick him up and take him to his hotel as his kids (early 20's) had gone to get airline tickets and he wasn't anticipating on the discharge. I was already out shopping and in the area and the hotel was about 1.5 miles away. I said yes. I picked him up, asked him how the last few days had gone and if he had felt better. He said he was and was glad to be going home.

Cut to Christmas Eve. My director calls me at home saying she wants to have an extensive meeting tomorrow morning. Do you guys think I was over the line? I felt like I was helping both my unit and the patient and avoiding issues all the way around. It was my day off, so it's not like I was on the clock. I'm so worried now about getting my tail chewed off that I haven't slept since Christmas eve and I'm having terrible GI distress.

[NJNursing, ASN, RN]

Your "unless" is the clincher. I realize there is no convincing you posting all the info you did was inappropriate but I hope that students or other new nurses reading this will be mindful that anything that can indentify a patient is a violation of their rights. The other day I was lurking on this section of the board with over 400 other people! Use your critical thinking skills folks.

Like RN/writer wisely said:

"One other thing--if other posters issue cautionary warnings, it's wise to listen and heed their advice. Confidentiality is not something any nurse should take liberties with."

Perhaps I'm just not as paranoid as others. Perhaps i'm just realistic that there are over 6 million people in this world and figuring out one person based on a few details which I felt were fairly vague if one were to come down to it and I had tried to double check myself after the fact and still couldn't find any logical way anyone could find out the identity of the pt based on what was given (which was pulled anyway, so what's the point?).

To me this topic is done. I had asked for just some real life advice about what someone else would have done in a situation being I've been a nurse only for a little over a year and a half and wanted to get some thoughts from people more seasoned than myself and instead it has turned into post after post after post of people trying to tell me how wrong I was for posting what I had posted. Completely off the original topic. If you want to hit 'reply' and continue to debate the information, don't. Otherwise I'll put in to have this topic closed and/or pulled as nothing constructive is coming out of it anymore and I regret even asking for help to begin with. Sheesh, heaven forbid I thought this was a place to get help.

[Altra, BSN, RN]

You asked for, and received, a significant amount of input, opinions, and advice.

[shellsincanada]

Perhaps I'm just not as paranoid as others. Perhaps i'm just realistic that there are over 6 million people in this world and figuring out one person based on a few details which I felt were fairly vague if one were to come down to it and I had tried to double check myself after the fact and still couldn't find any logical way anyone could find out the identity of the pt based on what was given (which was pulled anyway, so what's the point?).

To me this topic is done. I had asked for just some real life advice about what someone else would have done in a situation being I've been a nurse only for a little over a year and a half and wanted to get some thoughts from people more seasoned than myself and instead it has turned into post after post after post of people trying to tell me how wrong I was for posting what I had posted. Completely off the original topic. If you want to hit 'reply' and continue to debate the information, don't. Otherwise I'll put in to have this topic closed and/or pulled as nothing constructive is coming out of it anymore and I regret even asking for help to begin with. Sheesh, heaven forbid I thought this was a place to get help.

you seem to think you have control over this thread and what you have out there in the internet. You don't. Allnurses is a great forum, but by merely asking to have the thread removed doesn't mean it will be. I think you need to realize what you put out there is out there for good in a lot of cases. Sure you could go and edit and delete your posts- but what about the people who quoted you? Do you get that?

Sure there are6 million people out there but again- are you saying that if this person's spouse/sister/cousin/manager/coach etc read this thread they wouldn't recognize their loved one? That's all that needs to happen. Or who knows if someone who has it out for you and is looking for something like this to report on you? I have nothing against you - but you need to realize what you write out here has consequences. I was able to figure out which hospital you work at and I am miles and miles away from you. That is scary isn't it?

[DutchgirlRN, ASN, RN]

I have one question for the OP and the administration involved. If this patient had been a regular Joe Schmoe who would have given him their personal cell number? I can assuredly give you the correct answer which is a big fat ZERO. I say these people involved need to rethink their priorities which is to take care of the patient to the best of their abilities not to kiss their backsides.

[RNDreamer]

I was trying to decide whther or not to post. I don't want to start any trouble. I just wanted to say that people give away more information than they think. There were one or two members here whose places of employment I was able figure out (and confirm that I was CORRECT) just by something they innocently posted.

Let's say I read your first post (which I do agree was a lot of info, BTW). Now, let's say I was a HCW worker in NJ and the details you provided SOUNDED like someone who could have come in the hospital where I work, but I wasn't sure. A simple look at your profile would have confirmed whether or not I was right, just by whether or not I recognized you as someone I work with at the place of employment. I hope I am making sense. Please think about it.

[NJNursing, ASN, RN]

I have one question for the OP and the administration involved. If this patient had been a regular Joe Schmoe who would have given him their personal cell number? I can assuredly give you the correct answer which is a big fat ZERO. I say these people involved need to rethink their priorities which is to take care of the patient to the best of their abilities not to kiss their backsides.

Well there's more to the story than that and I really don't want to get into that as people say I'm giving out too much as it is, but it was enough for the bigwigs of the hospital to come personally visit him daily and it had nothing to do with what went wrong. It's something that ended up right (for once). But there was smooching of booties done more as a 'thanks' than anything else. Me? I was just trying to be nice. I know there's no night CC's when I'm not there and gave it to him to call me if any problems arose during the night that some of the younger nurses might not know how to handle right away or who to call. He had only called me twice and both were for reasons of business and not a friendly/bored 'hello'.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Somestimes we can't see the forrest for the trees. Members have responded re boundary issues. One thing for Senior mgmt to give out their personal contact info to diffuse situation, however line staff including charge nurses should bump up problems to the next level of management. There is a 24/7 nursing supervisor available for a reason.

This is the same rationale I used with my homecare patients: call agency phone number to reach the nurse on call if problems. No one was given my home number nor cell phone number.

Thread will be closed per OP request.