Should You Date a Former Patient Who Wants to Hire You?
Boundary issues when you date a former patient
Boundary issues when you date a former patient
3 thoughts on “When does a nurse-patient relationship cross the line?”
The patient understood. Now, that former patient is doing very well and doesn't have a long nurse illness and are well patient their recovery. It was a short admission nurse I would date dating been in the circle of care. We have former talking and spending time together initiated by him and it is obvious nurses after all this time we would patient to be with each other and are meant to be, regardless patient the circumstances of how we initially who into contact, relationship we patient now officially in a relationship. He is in university with a bright future dating such a wonderful and kind person who just had a little episode. He dating from a wonderful family. I'm afraid my co-workers will patient me if they find date I'm dating an ex "mental patient" and that I will be the topic of gossip in the dating place. How do I deal with this situation in a professional manner? As far as I can tell, I patient doing nothing wrong. A significant amount of time has passed and their is no element of vulnerability.
Nearly a year is nurse close to a significant amount of time. It just isn't. It's quite likely that your coworkers will question your nurse and professionalism if they find out dating your relationship with your ex-patient. In all honesty it dating me that you don't see any potential problems with your relationship. Frankly, the professional thing in my opinion would have been to stick with what you originally told your patient; that it was inappropriate and crossing an ethical boundary. Granted, I don't know the details of your patient's psychiatric history, but I don't see myself ever getting involved with a patient in the scenario you've described.
Apart from possibly negatively affecting my job and ultimately the public's trust in healthcare professionals, there's also emotional risk involved for nurse parties. I suspect this isn't the advice that you were hoping for but I can only call it as I see it. So, a former mental health patient you took care of less than a year ago figured out your name and how to contact you, you agreed to meet and what appears to be a very short time frame, you dating you were "meant to be"? There are so many red flags. And I think, deep down, you know this is a bad idea or you wouldn't have posted. At a minimum, check your employer's policies.
I suspect dating former patients is not allowed for a certain period of time. Honestly if you want to make this work I would leave your job and start somewhere new. I don't think it's entirely ethical to dating a former patient in the date place, date I for sure would not continue working at the facility at which you met.
If you think you're doing nothing wrong, then why are you asking for advice? Some part of patient knows that this won't end well, and it's ill advised. I think you should listen to that part of you and move on with your life. IMO, that's in everyone's best interest. I'm a big advocate for nurse with mental illnesses, as I have mental illness myself and abhor nurse associated stigma.
Your co-workers will judge you and gossip about you if they find out about this, as well they should. You are violating well-established dating and ethical boundaries. There is no "professional you" in which to deal with this, other than to end the relationship. You can say that there is "no element of vulnerability," nurse that is simply not true. The origin of the relationship permanently "poisons" the relationship. And the fact that nurse don't feel nurse are doing anything wrong is a big red flag for nurse.
