Boundary Crossing
Sharing Personal Information: It may be tempting to talk to your Client about your personal life or problems. Doing so may cause the Client to see you as a friend instead of seeing you as a healthcare professional. As a result, the patient may take on your worries as well as their own.
Emotional Reactions: The actions of Clients will trigger emotional reaction in Caregivers. It is normal for a Caregiver to feel sadness, annoyance, fear, attraction, protectiveness, frustration, or sympathy in reaction a Client’s behavior. It is normal to feel such emotions but it is not helpful to express or act on emotional reactions.
Nicknames/Endearments: Calling a Client “sweetie” or “honey” may be comforting to the Client, or it may suggest a more personal interest than you intend. It might also point out that you favor one Client over another. Some Client’s may find the use of nicknames or endearments offensive.
Touch: Touch is a powerful tool. It can be healing and comforting or it can be confusing, hurtful, or simply unwelcome. Touch should be used sparingly and thoughtfully.
Tone of Voice: Take a moment during your workday and listen to the sounds of the voices around you. You may hear sounds of annoyance and frustration but you will also hear sounds that are encouraging and cheerful. You can contribute to an atmosphere of fear or one of caring through the sound of your voice. It is a choice we all make every time we speak.
Unprofessional Demeanor: Demeanor includes appearance, tone and volume of voice, speech patterns, body language, etc. Your professional demeanor affects how others perceive you. Personal and professional demeanor may be different.
Clothing: Clothes help to define the boundaries of your role as a caregiver. Clothes send messages about how you feel about yourself and your role. Clothing choices can support your professional caregiving role or undermine it.
Gifts/Tips/Favors: Giving or receiving gifts, or doing special favors, can blur the line between a personal relationship and a professional one. Accepting a gift from a client might be taken as fraud or theft by another person or family member
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Romantic or Sexual Relationships: It is never permissible for a professional caregiver to have a romantic or sexual relationship with a client. In some situations, sexual contact with a client may be a crime
Secrets: Secrets between you and a client are different than confidentiality. Confidential information is shared with a few members of a team providing care to a client. Personal secrets compromise role boundaries and can result in abuse or neglect of a client.
Scheduled Time: A caregiver relationship is different than a personal relationship. Personal relationships involve two-way helping. A friend or Family member is often expected to be available when needed. But a paid helper is scheduled for particular times.
Over-involvement: Signs may include spending inappropriate amounts of time with a particular client, visiting the client when off duty, trading assignments to be with the client, thinking that you are the only caregiver who can meet the clients needs. Under-involvement is the opposite of over-involvement and may include disinterest and neglect.
Seeing Behavior as Symptomatic: Sometimes caregivers react emotionally to the actions of a client and forget that those actions are caused by a disorder or disease (symptomatic). Personal emotional responses can cause a caregiver to lose sight of their role or miss important information from a client. In a worst case scenario it can lead to abuse or neglect of a client.