Australia: Nurses banned from 'flirting, off-colour jokes'

Submitted by Minuteman on Sun, 2010-10-31 01:54

Link to article here. Excerpt:

'Nurses have been banned from flirting with patients under new ethics guidelines for hospitals.

The rules also crack down on sexual innuendo, “off-colour” jokes and offensive language, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
...
The guidelines come after the number of complaints made about NSW nurses with “professional boundary issues” almost tripled in the year to June 2009, compared with the previous year.

Figures from the NSW Nurses and Midwives Board reveal there were 17 complaints made in 2009, while there were a total 47 complaints over the past five years.'

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Comments

Typically, the flirters would be middle-aged women and the object of the flirting would be young men and boys. When I was that age, I did not want older women to flirt with me.

Also, I felt vulnerable in a hospital environment where I did not understand what was being done to me and I feared for my health. I did not know that there were standards or accountability.

The last thing I would want would be some old woman hitting on me. Would I have to play along in order to receive proper care, medications etc?

I had my appendix out when I was 16, and I did not know why things were done to me. I did not know that I could say 'no' to anything that was done. I was afraid that I would not survive the operation.

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Submitted by PaulG on Sun, 2010-10-31 19:26

"Nurses must also keep an eye out for any patients developing a crush, as failing to recognise attraction of a sexual nature is also considered sexual misconduct or assault."

That sounds like bad reporting (taken out of context) to me.

"—state it is the nurse’s responsibility to ensure they maintain a “professional boundary” even if a patient initiates or consents to sexual conduct."

I see no reasonable basis for that other trying to avoid lawsuits. Nurses should not initiate any flirting but if their simply responding without escalation there's nothing wrong that. I just don't like the "one size fits all" stuff.

Don't worry, I'm not forgeting that guys have to deal with this kind of crap all the time and that this announcement gives some of the same rules for nurses (more women) and its giving somewhere well deserved attention to female inappropriate sexuality.

I think it is right that both genders have to follow the same rules and not force men to carry the weight of women's inappropriateness and protections while women don't do the same. I think in the long run when we bring more equity to this, which is very good, we will also get rid of radical some crap.

Don't get me wrong though, I completely agree with limiting the female nurses sexual inappropriateness and I could easily imagine it being a problem.

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Submitted by fondueguy on Sun, 2010-10-31 21:09