Establishing and maintaining work role boundaries in aged care

First published: November 2024

Working in the aged care industry gives you opportunity to develop close relationships with the residents in your care. The superheroes that are healthcare professionals understand their patients and residents on a deeper level, especially in aged care as nurses can be interacting with the same residents for years.

Work role boundaries are important across any industry, but as the aged care worker to client relationships are built on a foundation of trust and understanding, maintaining professional boundaries is of upmost priority, with emphasis on protecting both parties.

Defining a professional boundary

Professional boundaries are legal, ethical and organizational frameworks that are put into place to establish a safe working environment both in a physical and emotional sense. These are often used in a contract of employment or in a separate policy that the employee can access at any time, stating what is appropriate when it comes to interacting with your client and what isn’t.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission commenced a Code of Conduct in December 2022, that includes eight elements that describes behaviours that are expected of aged care workers and approved providers. It includes similar standards that are included in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) code. It’s supported by the Aged Care Quality Standards and the Charter of Aged Care Rights that sets out 14 rights of aged care consumers.

Aged care providers need to have professional conduct that ensures it adheres to the Quality Standards, and compiles with the laws surrounding the aged care industry.

Goals of an aged care work role boundary

As a general overview, boundaries are established to ensure the safety of everyone present in the working environment. Specific aims of work role boundaries include:

• Maintaining a fair and inclusive space that everyone shares
• Encouraging everyone to voice any concerns freely and without consequence
• Establishing professional relationships that differ from those outside of the workplace
• Providing equal, high-level care
• Meeting the standards determined by the law
• Eliminating conflict of interest
• Keeping personal information private

Examples of aged care work role boundaries

Work role boundaries in the aged care industry need to cover all levels relating to direct and indirect resident care. There are seven main areas that boundaries generally fall into:

• Physical – Ensuring physical contact is consented and appropriate for the care that is needed to be provided. Physical contact must fulfill the medical needs of the resident, only, and personal space must be understood and respected.
• Emotional – Managing your client’s emotional needs whilst keeping your own emotions and responses private and suitable.
• Social – Keeping your professional and personal life separate and to be mindful of oversharing details about your life outside of the workplace.
• Time – This needs to be managed in a way that you dedicate the right amount of time to each resident, ensuring all of their needs are met in a timely manner and no one in neglected.
• Confidentiality – Resident to carer confidentiality is to be respected and personal information should be shared with the relative parties only.
• Role – You must work within the scope of your practice and report to your superior about things that is outside of your knowledge/capabilities/experience to prevent any harm.
• Ethical – Adhering to the laws and regulations set out by the Government and relevant organisations.

Overstepping professional aged care work role boundaries

Crossing boundaries can have a harmful impact on your work position and reputation, and on your client’s overall health. Examples of crossing these boundaries could be:

• Giving or receiving gifts
• Disclosing personal information about yourself or one of your clients to those who do not need to receive it
• Socialising outside of work hours, and/or in a location outside of the workplace
• Inappropriate physical contact
• Emotional abuse/manipulation
• Favouritism, and spending too much time with one client which in turn leads to neglect of another
• Working outside of your role and scope of practice, and attempting to complete tasks that you are not qualified for or assigned

Knowingly overstepping these boundaries can have a negative effect on your registration, if you are a clinical member of staff, and may stop you from being able to work in this position.

How to protect your personal work boundaries

Keeping yourself safe is just as important as protecting your clients. In certain situations, you may be unsure whether you, or someone else, is blurring the lines. These questions can help you to understand what to do next:

• What is my position in the situation?
• Are any of the residents needs being threatened?
• Is the sharing of this information going to cause anyone harm?
• Are these actions appropriate and needed?
• Am I clouding emotions with my judgement?
• Do I have any level of doubt making this decision?

Reporting work role boundary related misconduct

If you suspect that a boundary has been crossed, or there has been inappropriate actions carried out that has/will impact the aged care worker or the resident/client, you should always escalate the issue.

Each provider will have a policy that will detail what to do in the event of part of the code of conduct being breached. If you need to report an incident, you can do so by lodging it on the My Aged Care Service and Support portal. If you are a registered clinician, you are obligated to report notable incidents and make a mandatory notification, which is stipulated by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) National Board.

Aged care worker candidates at Sanctuary Recruitment

Our casual nursing pool is made up of reliable, trustworthy aged care professionals. Our extensive compliance and onboarding process includes mandatory training modules that each nurse must complete to show their knowledge of the laws and ethics surrounding aged care nursing is sound.

Reach out to our industry expert consultants to know more about our premium aged care recruitment services by clicking the link below: