Ethics and boundaries for friendships with former patients

[dirac7]

I've been receiving medical care from a student intern at Naturopathic school for sometime now. (The first 2 years of their training is the same as an MD) I'm no longer her patient and she'll be graduating soon and will going through her board exams later in the year. I would very much like to maintain a friendship with her and asked her at our final appointment if we could stay in touch by email. (The school has a policy that all clinician are not to have outside contact with patients unless they are affiliated with the school. Or something along those lines but I asked anyways) She pointed that she isn't supposed to but would like to keep in contact to see how things go for me and gave me her email. I'm uncertain if this means she would be open to a friendship or if she's simply did this to keep my spirits up.

I would like to point out that I have no intention on pursuing a relationship that isn't platonic. She's in a committed relationship and I have no intent on disrupting it. I should add that I am an open person and have not shared anything with her that I wouldn't be comfortable sharing with most people.

The thing is that I'm not sure if a true friendship is possible. Even if there aren't any ethical problems, she may decide not to form a friendship due to personal boundaries. I'm thinking that we'll just exchange the odd email here and there for the time being. At some point I would like to join her in some group activities but I am concerned as to how long I should wait. Would a year after the end of our doctor/ patient relationship be an appropriate amount of time before entertaining the idea of meeting again in person?

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[SouthernSurgeon]

In before "she's not a real doctor anyways so it doesn't matter"

 

[Winged Scapula]

Some issues:

1) Your request likely put a vulnerable, naive student in a position she wasn't sure how to handle. It may be very likely that she either said yes to your request because she didn't realize how big of a deal it was or didn't know how to say no.

2) We aren't going to be able to answer whether or not she's truly interested in a friendship with you or not.

3) Each profession has rules about social relationships with clients/patients. I'm sure the NM society has them as well; it should be searchable on-line. SDN does not include NM so we are not equipped to state what is the standard in their profession.

4) This is the the wrong forum for this as its not related to Pre-Medical education.

5) You've obviously drunken the Kool-Aid she's provided to you because the first two years of a naturopathic medicine curriculum is not the same as that of an MD/DO. I don't fault you as even the AANMC professes that NDs have *more* academic training than MD (all the while underreporting the curriculum hours of MD students and ignoring the hours of clinical training involved in residency). But I digress.

 

[dirac7]

In before "she's not a real doctor anyways so it doesn't matter"

Please be respectful. I'm not here to debate the legitimacy of alternative medicine. To be perfectly honest I've been trying it out since conventional medicine has proven to be effective for my condition.

How about we pretend that she's an MD finishing up her residency.

 

[dirac7]

Some issues:

1) Your request likely put a vulnerable, naive student in a position she wasn't sure how to handle. It may be very likely that she either said yes to your request because she didn't realize how big of a deal it was or didn't know how to say no.

2) We aren't going to be able to answer whether or not she's truly interested in a friendship with you or not.

3) Each profession has rules about social relationships with clients/patients. I'm sure the NM society has them as well; it should be searchable on-line. SDN does not include NM so we are not equipped to state what is the standard in their profession.

4) This is the the wrong forum for this as its not related to Pre-Medical education.

5) You've obviously drunken the Kool-Aid she's provided to you because the first two years of a naturopathic medicine curriculum is not the same as that of an MD/DO. I don't fault you as even the AANMC professes that NDs have *more* academic training than MD (all the while underreporting the curriculum hours of MD students and ignoring the hours of clinical training involved in residency). But I digress.

Sorry for not posting this in the appropriate forum. I saw a similar post in this forum, albeit a very different circumstance. It would be much appreciated if someone could direct me to an appropriate forum.

Thank you

Edit: I did find documentation for code of conduct and code of ethics in the professional body governing ND's in my region. There is nothing contained within it that speaks of platonic relationships. It does however have a section that speaks of sexual misconduct. I did find a physician/patient dating policy which states that there should be a 1 year gap between the end of this relationship before the commencement of a romantic relationship is deemed not unethical. Since I am not looking for that sort of relationship I find the information not very useful. I suppose it can be interpreted that a friendship wouldn't be considered unethical after a 1 year (or less) has passed after the end of a physician/patient relationship.

 

[deleted480308]

You haven't been receiving medical care, she is a naturopath. And she's not even a naturopath because she's a student.

So what you are asking is, can I date this girl who goes to school

 

[dirac7]

You haven't been receiving medical care, she is a naturopath. And she's not even a naturopath because she's a student.

So what you are asking is, can I date this girl who goes to school

First off, I'm not looking for a romantic relationship, as I have stipulated above.

Secondly, even if you don't believe in the profession, I would like to receive a respectful response.

Let's pretend she's an MD in the middle of her residency. How would you respond to my question now?

 

[Goro]

I can't imagine being pals with any of my caregivers. Not because they're bad people, but because there is a line called "professional decorum". It's like me being pals with some of my students. Once they graduate, I treat them as peers, and then we can be pals,.

 

[touchpause13]

Let's pretend she's an MD in the middle of her residency.

No.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Closed at the request of the OP.