boundaries
As employees of the prison, we’re instructed to not share personal details about us or our lives with the incarcerated residents.
I find this to be a daily challenge.
As PT’s, we have more time with a patient than say the doctor. And we don’t have our hands in their mouths (unless treating for TMJ issues) like the dentist. So there’s usually opportunity to chat about life.
But in here, this should not happen. It’s a safety issue.
When speaking to my patients at the prison, I use the words like, “I have family that experienced that.” Or “I have family that lived there.” Or “yes, I’m familiar with that.”
Obviously they know I have a mother and a father but I never speak of them specifically.
I never say where I’ve lived or went to school.
Some get to know that I played basketball in college, but that’s as far as I go.
I don’t even mention that I like to kitesurf because that’s too specific. But I might say I like the ocean or being close to water.
They know I wear a ring on my left hand. But I could be married to a man or a woman. Or widowed or divorced. I never mention that I even have a partner.
And they know they’re not supposed to ask us personal questions. But sometimes they do.
Most of the time I reply, “TMI” and move on. I can write them up for “familiarity” though I’ve never done that. There have been instances I probably should have.
But again, as a PT on the outside, we commonly share personal things with our patients. It’s been hard to not do that.
For instance my patient asked if we could go over his recent diagnostic results because he thought his ducat for our visit that day was with the doctor for that purpose.
I told him his doctor’s visit regarding that, was the following week. He was upset that they would wait that long to inform him.
In order to normalize his situation for him, I mentioned that I had a biopsy taken from my ear about a month ago. And that I had only just heard back about the results this week. So whether we’re on the outside or the inside, sometimes these things take time. And at least he wouldn’t be waiting a month.
I mentioned that I had just tried not to worry about it unnecessarily, because it wasn’t something I could do anything about anyhow.
He inquired, “I know this may be too personal, but can I ask what your results were?” Because I had worked with him a bit, I knew he wasn’t asking for nefarious reasons and that he empathetically wanted to know.
So I told him, “they were negative, thank you for asking.” I thought about this afterwards and considered that if they had been positive, I probably would have said “TMI” and moved on.
So, while I likely share more than other providers there, I do try to gauge what is personable in order to be human without sharing personal details that might jeopardize my safety.
It’s a boundary line I’m still trying to work on.
*just to note, I’ll be leaving out the name of the institution that I work at. It’s a state prison in California for reference. Images are not from the prison as no devices are allowed in.
Prison PT 
Leave a comment