How clinical nursing instructors define and construct interpersonal boundaries with their students

• Main Author: Zieber, Mark Richard Pijl
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/9130

The purpose of this study was to examine how nursing instructors define and construct interpersonal boundaries with the students they teach. While the last two decades have seen a transition in the philosophy of teaching and learning in nursing, boundary construction within the new direction has not yet been fully examined. The literature reflects a wide variety of opinions on what constitutes an interpersonal boundary in the context of a teaching practice. Data collection involved open-ended interviews with eight nursing instructors. The data were analyzed from the perspective of naturalistic inquiry and utilized a constant comparative technique. The study found that interpersonal boundaries were defined as limitations in the relational dynamics between the instructor and student. The construction of boundaries was a process that involved a series of boundary crossings between the delineation of professional and personal. The process of boundary crossing was enacted in the level of connection between the clinical participants and the amount and depth of self disclosure.