Professional boundaries. A matter of therapeutic integrity

1. Establishing and maintaining boundaries creates a relational space in which the patient and nurse are able to explore treatment issues within the safety of the therapeutic relationship. 2. The therapeutic relationship in founded on the basis of trust, respect, and appropriate use of power. Understanding the power differential within the nurse patient relationship is critical to the establishment and maintenance of professional boundaries. 3. Therapeutic integrity is rooted in knowledge, experience, and clinical judgment. As such, there are not always clearly demarcated answers to the tough questions posed by the dilemmas in practice. 4. Questions arising from practice challenge nurses to reflect on the meaning of boundaries in their personal and professional lives.