Friendships with Medical Staff

mary625

I'm wondering if medical staff is allowed to have friendships or relationships with patients after treatment.  We get to know these people during chemo, radiation and appointments.  If there's someone we enjoy talking with, is it against their code of ethics to befriend the patient?

Brendatrue

Many health care providers are guided by professional standards (for example, of their licensing boards, professional organizations) that recommend professional (working) relationships not be carried over into a personal (friendship or romantic) relationship. There are many issues at play here: potential for conflict of interest, power imbalance, challenges of negotiating both personal and professional relationships, boundary confusion. Because of the history of problems that have occurred, many care providers avoid personal relationships with current and former clients just to be safe. Of course, there are people out there who have developed appropriate, healthy relationships with care providers, but it requires a good level of personal awareness, good judgment, and a healthy respect for each other's "boundaries" to make it work well.