You may be overworked, stressed out, with little time to form meaningful relationships outside of your working life. Along comes the nurse, compassionate and caring, who meets these needs and the patient falls for her.” “The patient may have unfulfilled emotional needs. Along comes the nurse, compassionate and caring, who meets these needs and the patient falls for her. The patient may have unfulfilled emotional needs. It is common for a patient to become emotionally attached to his or her nurse or other caregivers. The most important thing to ask yourself is whether the romantic emotions you are feeling are the real thing and not just part of the nurse-patient dynamic.
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As with any ethical dilemma, this analysis will help you to decide what your next steps should be.
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It may help to write everything down, or even to discuss your problem with trusted colleague or supervisor. When you find yourself in the position where a romantic attraction has developed between you and your patient, you need to take a step back and analyze the situation objectively.
#Nightingale syndrome professional
So what do you do when there is a spark between you and a patient? The advice is to be very cautious and to make sure that you don’t overstep professional boundaries while you are the person’s nurse. However, there have been many nurses and patients that have found themselves to be soulmates and ended up being happily married for life. It could affect professional judgment lead to exploitation and even cause emotional and physical harm to the patient. These are the main reasons why it is unethical for a nurse to enter into a romantic relationship with a patient. The nurse also has a lot of sensitive personal information about the patient while, in contrast, the patient knows very little about the nurse as a person.
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The nurse is in a position of power while the patient is in a dependent, vulnerable position. The nurse-patient relationship in an unequal one. While caring for our patients, we must at all times remain within the boundaries of a professional, therapeutic relationship. We all know that it is unethical to enter into any type of romantic relationship with a patient and that such a relationship can lead to a charge of professional misconduct and even losing your job. You find yourself strongly attracted to a patient and, especially if the attraction seems to be mutual, you could be heading for a problem.