Maintaining professional boundaries: keep your distance.

Maintaining professional boundaries is essential to an effective nurse-patient relation whose sole focus must be on the care and treatment needs of the patient. Complaints about failures to maintain professional boundaries are increasing, with the Nursing and Midwifery Council reporting some 247 new cases in the year 2012-12. The article outlines the scope of the nurse-patient relationship, what activity is considered to be outside the professional and considers the consequences for community nurses if they are found to have breached a professional boundary.