Nurse and patient relationship

Know Whether It Is Ethical For Nurse To Date A Patient

You must have heard about nurse patient romances and thought about the morality behind it. Even though the people who are involved in such a relationship would try to justify themselves by saying that love is blind or something flowery, it can not be denied that it is unethical for a nurse to date a patient. The reason for this is that when a patient is under going treatment he or she is feeling very vulnerable and is not in the right frame of mind because of medications. He may feel attracted towards a nurse or may consider himself to be in love with a nurse because of the gratitude that he feels for her.

A patient see a nurse as someone who cares for him and in return someone who can be relied on. Because of this factor, a patient becomes more dependent upon the nurse emotionally. So it becomes the duty of the nurse to ward off any attraction that a patient shows towards her and do the right thing. It is quite natural for someone who is undergoing treatment and is away from his family to start liking a person who cares for them and motivate them to come out of their illness.

While some people may feel that it is all right to have a relationship with a patient until and unless the patient does not have any mental illness, the fact remains that it is absolutely unethical for any person be it a nurse or a doctor who is providing health care should not try to form any relationship out the boundaries of professionalism and humanity. Their only duty is to restore the patient back to health. So if a nurse feels that she has any strong feelings for her patient the wise thing to do would be to wait till the patient is totally cured and is discharged from her professional services. This way they would be on equal footing when they start dating.

If a nurse on duty would start dating a patient then it is likely that she would show favoritism towards her crush and her duty towards other patients would take a back seat which must not happen. A nurse also has to bear in mind that it would affect her work if she gets too attached to someone. She would not be able to give her professional services as efficiently while she is playing the role of two people.

Apart from all these it is also illegal to date patient in your care as stated by the nursing and midwifery council. If it is found that a nurse is romantically involve with a patient she would have to face serious repercussions. If she is reported then chances are that she would have to lose her nursing license and say goodbye to her nursing career. This rule is also applicable for doctors. In fact a doctor or a nurse who is treating a patient or has treated the patient in the last few months they can not date the patient.

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