Will you add your patient in facebook?

[rn4ever?]

If a patient/former patient of yours (I’m not talking about a patient who happens to also be your friend from way way back or someone who is a family friend-----I’m talking about a patient you met initially on your floor as a nurse) add you in his/her facebook account, would you accept it? Why or why not? Just curious..........

[oramar]

Answer is simple, "NO".

[Music in My Heart]

If a patient/former patient of yours (I'm not talking about a patient who happens to also be your friend from way way back or someone who is a family friend-----I'm talking about a patient you met initially on your floor as a nurse) add you in his/her facebook account, would you accept it? Why or why not? Just curious..........

Of course not. My work life and my personal life are two separate things and I choose to keep it that way. It avoids all sorts of potential problems.

[Katie5]

Nope...we met on professional ground and there it will remain. C'mon, you're my patient, I don't expect you to know the going ons in my life away from my job.

[TampaTech]

I would never do this at all. I actually came across with this problem with my ex. We worked on the same floor and we both were taking care of the same patient at the same time (talk about gay pride festival LOL) but anyway's. The kid had a phone at the time the had access to myspace and he looked up my ex-bf and asked if he could be his friend on there. I personally took it offensivley. That situation caused many problems for us and the kid was always being bothered by our ex-pt! Then this kid gave my bf's phone number (yes he also gave his phone number to him as well) to another gay male that lived up north, and this kid was always texting my bf and sending him pic's. That was a very bad situation and my BF didnt think that there was anyything wrong with it. I of course said and thought otherwise. I gave him a choice, to either stop talking to these two kids (because one was a pt of our, and the other was a pest) or I walk out on him. So now that my rambling is done, in the end I would never friend a pt of mine no way no how!

[Music in My Heart]

Nope...we met on professional ground and there it will remain. C'mon, you're my patient, I don't expect you to know the going ons in my life away from my job.

And I don't want to know the goings on of your life.

Besides, I already don't have enough time for the people in my life who really matter to me.

[Katie5]

I would never do this at all. I actually came across with this problem with my ex. We worked on the same floor and we both were taking care of the same patient at the same time (talk about gay pride festival LOL) but anyway's. The kid had a phone at the time the had access to myspace and he looked up my ex-bf and asked if he could be his friend on there. I personally took it offensivley. That situation caused many problems for us and the kid was always being bothered by our ex-pt! Then this kid gave my bf's phone number (yes he also gave his phone number to him as well) to another gay male that lived up north, and this kid was always texting my bf and sending him pic's. That was a very bad situation and my BF didnt think that there was anyything wrong with it. I of course said and thought otherwise. I gave him a choice, to either stop talking to these two kids (because one was a pt of our, and the other was a pest) or I walk out on him. So now that my rambling is done, in the end I would never friend a pt of mine no way no how!

I'm intrigued! Your boyfriend left you for a gay male patient of yours, who in turn introduced him to another gay male. Was that the way of it? Intriguing.

[caliotter3]

Why give anyone ammo to bring allegations of HIPAA violations against you, much less the other realities of stalking? People have been fired from their jobs over Facebook, I would think everyone could learn something from those incidents.

[Moogie]

I'm intrigued! Your boyfriend left you for a gay male patient of yours, who in turn introduced him to another gay male. Was that the way of it? Intriguing.

I know of people who have dated patients and some who have married patients (most of whom had been hospitalized for some sort of chronic condition.) Not something I would do because honestly, I would not want to be someone's private nurse for the rest of my life.

[wsuRN09]

Why give anyone ammo to bring allegations of HIPAA violations against you, much less the other realities of stalking? People have been fired from their jobs over Facebook, I would think everyone could learn something from those incidents.

Agree, I would not "friend" a patient and I wouldn't even let them know I had a facebook account. I would not want a disgruntled patient or a stalker looking into my personal life even though they wouldn't learn much anyway. The patient-nurse relationship is a professional one and that's the way I want to keep it.

[Lovely_RN, MSN]

No, I don't friend co-workers or patients.

When I'm at work I'm friendly and very nice to co-workers and patients but I don't delude myself into thinking that makes them my friends.

Just my but I define friends as people who I can be myself around and I can be never be 100% myself at work. At work I can be friendly and chit chat but can I cry, cuss, or say off color not-PC comments? Hell no, not if I want to keep my job, not risk a harassment charge, and not be labeled a whack job....so explain to me how I can be friends with anyone at work when I can't be myself?

Now why would I want people who aren't really my friends to be "all up in my business" on FB?

It makes no sense. I firmly believe that you shouldn't even tell co-workers and patients that you have a FB account, I think you should use the maximum privacy settings, and still as a further pre-caution post nothing that can come back to bite you in the rear.

At least on allnurses I can deny it's me because there are no pics and no one know my real name!

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

In a word: NOPE.

[jnrsmommy]

As a general rule, no... but there are always exceptions I guess.

My story. Had a pt for a few weeks several years ago, about a year or so later, DH and I are at a gaming convention and run in to former pt. I didn't remember him, he remembered me. We exchanged pleasantries, DH and he hit it off (wow, those two have a lot in common). They became friends.. he and I friends as a result of their friendship.