 Okay so today I wanted to do a video on forming boundaries as a nurse and by this I mean you're forming that line which sometimes is kind of a gray area it's not always black and white with your patients um as far as your professional relationship with them not talking like relationship like you you're trying to become partners with them I mean I guess a little bit you could be like this could be part of that but forming that boundary between being their friend being caring being their mentor but not taking that home with you at the end of the day and not crossing that line and I know this is kind of just a very very gray area to talk about so this is something that's very difficult to do when you start off as being a nurse because you just want to please everyone you want to make sure everyone um feels like they're being taken care of and getting exactly what they want and you just don't really know how to say no to patients or how to redirect them for example I'm going to give you a couple examples of things that have happened to me that kind of have crossed that boundary line that um where you kind of have to stand up for yourself as a nurse and just make sure that things are appropriate out of patient one time ask me if they could give me money to run down to the gas station to buy them forget what it was I think it was like a soda or something like that obviously that's kind of an easier one um that's not appropriate as a nurse to be like oh sure let me go down and buy you a soda um I guess every facility would be different maybe if you had like a really long-term care uh facility then maybe that relationship would be okay I don't know about at least in the hospital acute care setting that's not appropriate and so that was an instance for how to be like no sorry like I can't do that for you you're gonna have to ask your family to do that or actually I think this patient I was like no you can't you probably shouldn't be drinking soda um but that's one instance another instance is and this can be applied to so many different patients or when patients are asking you for you know more pain in medication when you know you've already given them the max dose and you're giving it to them on schedule and they're like oh can you just do a little early oh can you just you know ask the doctor for a little bit more and um there becomes a point and obviously you want to make sure their pain's treated and you want to have good communication with the physician about this but there becomes a there comes a point where you have to be like no I'm sorry like this is what the doctor's ordered this is when I can give it to you and that's it and that's another example forming a boundary another instance um a boundary forming is um when you have patients who can take care of themselves a little bit more like for example maybe they're soiling themselves on purpose and they want you to clean them up and they are just being um trying to be nice but they're trying to have you do it for them because either they don't want to do it for themselves whatever the reason is and you will get those patients and of course as nurses as healthcare providers we are happy to help people with the things that they are unable to do or need assistance in doing but when people are asking you to do certain things for them which you're like you know that they can do it they're just either being lazy or manipulative or just wanting that attention then you really kind of have to form that boundary and be like you know what do you do at home how do you take care of yourself at home oh you can use the bathroom independently and you clean up yourself or you're able to wipe you're able to do this well let's keep it consistent in this in the nursing world because we want to make sure you can go home and still be functioning with your normal day to day activities that's kind of my go-to when I have patients who I don't mind giving patients some extra TLC and especially when you've got like the 95 year old little frail grandma or grandpa that you know wants them to you to like tuck their pillows right and their blankets and I'm happy happy so happy to do that for people but when you get patients who are like can you just tuck my blanket a little bit more this way oh can you wrap my feet up in the blanket can you do this and they're like someone like me that like could totally do that themselves and you've helped them a bit but then you kind of realize that okay they're just wanting that little extra tension but beyond just a little extra tension if you know what I mean and that's when I always the go-to freeze that I have and most nurses will use this and if you haven't heard of this here you go I'm offering you a little pearl of wisdom is I always ask how would you do this at home and they'll tell me oh I do it myself at home and then that's you're like okay well I'm happy to help you with the things that you need help with but we really want to keep things consistent to what you're doing prior at home so that way we can continue that so when you do go home you can still take care of yourself that is my go-to line it's very I don't say it rudely it's to the point it's it is what it is and it's so true we want to assist patients in their needs but we don't want to cater to them so so much that they actually progress backwards progress is not really my right word but they fall backwards and get worse as far as taking care of themselves because we've just done so so so much for them beyond like that boundary it's if that makes sense so the biggest advice that I have to you guys one this comes with experience when you're a new nurse I did the same thing I was like oh I just want to do everything for everyone okay sure I'll tuck your blankets 17 times every time I come in the room but eventually you have to get to the point where you have formed those boundaries and you get better at knowing like when are patients truly needing help in that extra care and when are they doing it for other reasons and this just comes with time and then also know your policies and procedures and what you're allowed to do and what you're not allowed to do for example the patient offers you money or asks if you can go do something or hey just you know can you just give this medication to me a little early it won't matter that if you know your policies and procedures it's pretty easy to say yes or no to certain things because you know that that's a fine line or not fine line that's a harsh line a thick line I don't know that's a strict line of no I can't do this for you I'm sorry but like let's try this um and you don't have to be rude about it you can be to the point and I think I'm done rambling because this video is getting a little long I hope you guys enjoyed it and share some experiences down below where you've had to kind of stand up for yourself or like that boundary line was crossed or about to be crossed and you had to kind of gauge things and bring things back onto the nursing side of the line let me know your stories and thoughts in the comments below give this video a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel and I'll see you guys next time bye