On my rural prac, I was treating a male outpatient for shoulder pain. On my initial assessment, he came across as a very friendly man and we chatted throughout the session. I was trying to be polite and show an interest in his hobbies etc. On the second session he was much more open, telling me about his life and interests and asking about my life and future plans etc. While still taking the conversation quite lightly, after the session I began to question whether it was apprpopriate for him to go into so much detail about his life with me. I brushed this off and just thought if he needed someone to talk to, there probably isnt any reason why it cant be me and that he was probably just trying to be nice to me as I was still very new to the town.
I was still a little unsure as to his intentions in the third session, but told myself just to listen passively and not reveal too much about myself in any answers I gave. At the end of this session, he gave me a gift of a CD which we had discussed and invited me to come and watch him and his band play on the weekend. I tried to politely refuse the CD, but he insisted I take it and just put it on to listen to in the office if we wanted. Thankfully I was able to think of a quick excuse as to why I wouldnt be able to go and thanked him politely for the offer.
This situation made me feel really uncomfortable as I was still unsure as to whether he was just being genuine and friendly or if he had other intentions. It made me realise that while it is good to build rapport with patients to earn their trust, you should have a definite 'line' set in your mind about what does and doesnt make you feel comfortable and to advise the patients of this should they approach this line.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Did you fill out one of those sexual harassment surveys? haha.
Seriously now, I agree that as therapists we have to know what 'advances' or conversations make us comfortable or uncomfortable and consider an appropriate way to disclose this to our patient if the time arises. However, I also feel that due to our age this can influence how we are perceived by some patients and it changes the nature of how we interact with them. Especially if treating someone around the same age, I think we need to (in the back of your mind) consider language used, treatment positions etc so that anything that we do is hard to be misconstrued. It is probably easy to fall into the trap of talking to them very informally! Otherwise, nicely handled and if all else fails-tell someone else what has happened so they can help work out the best way to deal with the situation.
I had one patient offer to give me some money after I'd treated him for a couple of weeks. This was in the outpatient department of a small metropolitan hospital and I think he offered me something like $20. I refused the payment but he was quite insistant that I should take it. Eventually I told him that if he really wanted to give me the money then he could donate it to a charity on my behalf.
Post a Comment