Nurse’s relationship with patient crossed boundary, college says

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This article was published 03/10/2017 (2984 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The case of a Manitoba nurse whose relationship with a patient went so far that he was named a beneficiary in the person’s will is prompting the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba to remind the public about what constitutes a professional relationship.

“The classic determinant of the nurse-patient relationship is that they both know what the goals are and there’s a very clear plan of care,” said college executive director Katherine Stansfield. “Once there are domestic kinds of activities occurring, once there is some blurring of the lines around financial support, then you really have to ask yourself, is there something specific that this registered nurse is doing?”

Christopher Perrett, a veteran nurse with more than two decades experience, pleaded guilty to professional misconduct in late August, according to a decision posted online late last week.

Perrett, who could not be reached Tuesday by the Free Press, runs a private, in-home foot-care service. For seven years from 2008 to 2015, he provided care to the patient in question, whose name has been redacted from the college decision document.

The pair became quite close. They bought gifts for one another, took trips together, bought each other birthday lunches, and spoke frequently about things unrelated to the patient’s care. Perrett even did a few home and yard repairs for his patient.

The relationship escalated to the extent that Perrett consented to becoming co-executor of his patient’s estate without realizing that his patient had already named him a beneficiary in their will.

Although satisfied this wasn’t a case of a nurse exploiting a patient, the college’s discipline committee is quite clear that it “crossed professional boundaries” and is “unacceptable.”

“A therapeutic relationship between the nurse and the client is central to all nursing practice and is an entry-level competency for registered nurses in Manitoba,” reads the committee’s decision. Perrett, the panel wrote, “had a professional obligation to set boundaries and to maintain an appropriate therapeutic relationship.”

It’s very rare that the college sees such cases, Stansfield told The Free Press.

“Fortunately, I think for many that boundary is very clear,” she said, “we’re taught (it) early in our education so really its very rare.”

Stansfield echoed the panel in saying that Perrett should have referred the patient to someone else when he realized that their relationship was becoming personal.

“It happens, sometimes before either the client or registered nurse notice that they’re now in a more personal relationship,” she said. “Once you start to recognize, ‘maybe we’re more in a friendship than we are in a therapeutic relationship,’ then the registered nurse has to make a decision about whether to transfer (care).”

Perrett will not be suspended or face any financial repercussions because he expressed remorse and co-operated fully with the panel during its investigation. He is not considered a risk to the public, although the decision is public and now part of his nursing record.

jane.gerster@freepress.mb.ca