Guest Appearance… EP. 33 Your Health Matters Podcast

Guest Appearances – Speaking on Professional Boundaries

I’m honoured to have recently been invited by the Nurses & Midwives Support team to have a conversation about Professional Boundaries with the host, Mark Aitken, on episode 33 of their always educational and often insightful, Your Health Matters podcast. They invited me to provide you with the facts, information, resources, and support you need to confidently assert your own boundaries.

Nurses & Midwife Support regularly hears from nurses and midwives that managing their professional boundaries can be difficult and confusing, and they offer support to nurses and midwives impacted by boundary transgressions or with questions about boundary management and know that navigating professional boundaries is rarely easy, or black and white. They know that understanding professional boundaries is vital for nurses and midwives to meet registration requirements, practice safely, and protect ourselves and the public from harm. Unfortunately, asserting professional boundaries isn’t always easy.

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) also recognises that managing professional boundaries can be complicated, particularly in identifying and differentiating the boundaries between professional relationships and personal relationships. That’s why they provide guidance on professional boundaries in the respective Code of conduct that aim to protect the community by helping to prevent distress, confusion, harm, or abuse of people being cared for by nurses and midwives. But professional boundaries aren’t just crucial for protecting the people we care for —  they’re vital for protecting clinicians, too. Understanding your professional boundaries is essential for your professional wellbeing.

I have spent many years studying professional boundaries, and have 30 years experience as a registered nurse in clinical, education, and research settings, including twenty-five years in mental health. My special interests are professional supervision, professional boundaries, professional identity, links between childhood trauma and mental illness, and workplace bullying.

I enjoyed the conversation with Mark on the Your Health Matters podcast to explain some of what I have learned about professional boundaries and how they will help you sustain your professional health and wellbeing.

Visit the Your Health Matter Podcast website to listen, and read more about this episode, or listen on Soundcloud, here.

Cheers,

Wendy McIntosh