Marcia's and Katie's affection for one another allowed boundaries to be blurred. When a nurse is overly involved in a patient's care, the patient may ask for help from the nurse in doing things that she or he needs to take personal responsibility for doing. The patient allows him- or herself to become too dependent on the nurse. Blurring of roles in a nurse-patient relationship can be caused by transference and counter-transference. In this case, Katie had transferred her need for a loving and safe parent figure to Marcia. Marcia knew that in this situation, her role as godmother and her feelings for Katie conflicted with her role as nurse. But it was more difficult to acknowledge the temptation to slip into a parental role.
展开▼
