Teaching Professional Boundaries in Psychiatric Nursing: Resource Development

Abstract

A standard of practice in psychiatric nursing pertains to the ability to maintain professional boundaries within a nurse-patient relationship. Nursing students are inexperienced in maintaining nurse-patient relationships and are at risk of crossing professional boundaries. Research regarding boundary instruction and available resources is needed to guide educators. Psychiatric nurse educators (n = 11) and psychiatric nurses (n = 9) were interviewed to determine what resources psychiatric nursing educators use to teach professional boundaries to undergraduate students. Following the interviews and preliminary analysis, eight participants also attended a focus group. Participants reported resources such as textbooks were useful for defining professional boundaries. Participants also described case studies as a resource available to help operationalize boundaries in psychiatric nursing practice. Resources should be developed to address changes in care provision and technology to include cultural competence and guidelines for the use of social media. [J Nurs Educ. 2023;62(2):97-100.].