An exploration of setting healthy personal boundaries as a veterinary professional. Part 2: how to set and maintain personal boundaries

Abstract

Personal boundaries are the metaphorical behavioural and emotional walls we erect to help us maintain healthy and sustainable relationships. We put boundaries in place to ensure that our needs for maintaining our physical and psychological safety are met. Clearly expressing our boundaries allows us to sustainably behave compassionately, improve our mental health, protect our physical safety and build trust in veterinary teams. Trust and compassion have positive effects on patient outcomes. We can express our boundaries through a four step boundary template. This is the second in a series of two articles discussing how to instigate and maintain healthy boundaries and how having healthy personal boundaries can benefit us in veterinary practice.