Nursing: Nursing And Professional Boundaries In Nursing

Nursing and Professional Boundaries

Jennifer Bergeron

Southeastern Louisiana University

As nurses, we strive to provide the best care possible for every patient. There is a standard of care that every nurse should follow while being careful to not cross professional boundaries. There are many aspects of care nurses should strive to accomplish to stay professional. The most important of these aspects are to be civil, ethical, honest, forgiving, to be better than good, consistent, be an effective communicator, be accountable for your own actions, be collaborative with other health care providers, be up to date with current skills and knowledge, involved, a model to others, and continue to be prepared every day ( Black, 2014).

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I go out of my way to treat every person with equal respect even if I disagree with their opinion. To fully respect someone you must also be honest with them especially when it is difficult to tell the whole truth. Effective communication helps aid with terrible news. It is equally important to listen and be open to other individuals’ ideas and opinions as it is to voice yours. I believe that you should stick to your ethics and stand up for what is right including the professional standard. Your behavior should reflect your values and what you expect others to be like. I always strive to do my best and to be current with all assignments and skills needed. I have recently learned how important it is to be collaborative with my fellow classmates to help ourselves achieve more. The most important value of professionalism that I have always found pertinent to being an overall good person is responsibility for oneself and one’s

Visiting your patient while off duty and not in uniform was the second breach. Inappropriate touching and flirtation started the third breach following with friending the patient on social media. Giving out your personal phone number during an appointment with the patient is also a breach of professionalism along with more inappropriate touching that could be construed as flirting. Being unprofessional can damage to the relationship gained between the nurse and the patient (“Boundaries,” 2017). The amount of intimate information exchanged between the two can affect how honest or comfortable the patient is with their nurse. Communication will no longer be therapeutic if they have established a non-professional relationship. The nurse can harm the patient when boundaries are crossed (“Boundaries,” 2017).

If other nurses notice that professional boundaries have been crossed they are obligated to report you. The person reporting you is obligated to report you to your supervisor and the state board of nursing. Depending on the state, you may even be reported to local law enforcement. If there is a sexual misconduct, there will be an investigation on the reported claim by the state board of nursing. The state board of nursing has the right to suspend your license to practice until the investigation is over (Hanna & Suplee,