I am on a placement where I see my patients twice daily. I have been seeing this one old man for several weeks now and have development good rapport with him. He reminds me very much of one of my elderly relatives so that has made me quite fond of him. I feel very sorry for him because he tells me all the time that he loves his elderly wife so much and wishes he could see her more. This is however hard as she cannot drive and their only son works far away.
One day he was quiet during our physio session and seemed generally depressed. I asked him if he was alright and he became teary. He told me it was his 60th wedding anniversary that day and he wished he could see his wife. He then told me all the details of his wedding day and how much his wife means to him. I felt so sorry for him that I was almost in tears myself, silly as it may seem! As it was my half day I offered to go and collect his wife from home and bring her in to see him. I asked my supervisor if this was alright and she was very hesitant. I then decided it was best not to because I think this would be crossing the barrier between professional and personal. I told my patient that it was against hospital policy that I collect his wife, and he understood.
In the future I hope to be able to handle the situation better and not get so emotionally tied to patients personal problems.
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I had similar experience when working with the elderly: There was an old lady who gave me her home address and told me to visit her for coffee before she was discharged and there was another old man who told me to pay him a visit at his place so he could give me a book that he wrote 30 years ago. As I was really close with these patients and did not want to lose the rapport we had at that stage, I was actually going to visit them until I spoke to my supervisor who then told me that I should always keep myself professional and most elderly can simply feel lonely. And I totally agree with your suggestion about not getting too emotionally tied to patients as it will probably be better for us not to cross the professional boundaries in health care relationships to avoid any potential problems.
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