Occasionally staff are approached by grateful patients or relatives of patients who want to
offer gifts in appreciation of the care that they have received.
It can be difficult to refuse offers of largesse, which are offered with the best
of motives without appearing to be ungrateful, but nurses must be mindful of
the section in the code of conduct the deals with Maintaining Clear
Professional Boundaries.
The code states that, nurses “must refuse any gifts, favours or
hospitality that might be interpreted as an attempt to gain preferential
treatment”
(http://www.nmc-uk.org/Publications/Standards/The-code/Introduction/)
Nurses must be aware that by accepting gifts, even if they are said to be “ to say thank
you to all of the staff on the ward” or “for the other patients on the ward”, they are putting themselves in an unsafe situation and risking their professional qualifications.
If you accept gifts, especially money, on behalf of the other members of the staff you are putting yourself in the strict legal position of a trustee of those funds, a position which is subject to rules and laws. Just putting money in a drawer to be used later when the time is right, is very dangerous and the Code of Conduct recognizes this.
It was to avoid such situations that the old Amenity Funds and the practice of putting money into one of the old “ZZ” accounts held by the Department was abandoned. The Department did not want to be seen to be
holding funds which had been donated for the benefit of the staff and patients because by doing so they were holding themselves out as trustees with all of the risks that this entailed.
Luckily there was a solution to the dilemma. The Department established a Charitable Trust (formerly known as the Guernsey Health Services Charitable Trust) to hold all such monies and ensure that no
member of staff should be put in the position of having to run the risks attached to being held to be a trustee of these funds.
LITTLE EXTRAS is wholly independent of the Department and is able to accept gifts on your behalf.
Grateful patients and relatives who wish to express their thanks should be directed to the website of
“the Little Extras Trust” where they will find instructions as to how to make donations to the trust and how the funds will be used.
https://www.thelittleextras.org
(Source Magazine)