POLICY MATTERS
Boundary violations not
limited to sexual interactions
We want your feedback on new draft policy, advice document
T
he College’s draft policy on bound-
ary violations is addressing, for
the first time, non-sexual bound-
ary violations, including personal
financial transactions between physicians and
their patients. The draft is an update of the cur-
rent Maintaining Boundaries and Preventing
Sexual Abuse policy.
While the Boundary Violations draft policy,
which is now out for consultation, focuses most
of its content on sexual boundary violations, the
policy working group undertaking the review
process believed it was also important to ad-
dress the potential harm that can be caused to
patients as a result of dual relationships. As part
of its review, the group noted an increase in the
number of physicians mandated to attend the
Boundaries Course at Western University as a
result of a non-sexual boundary violation.
Such violations can include lending patients
money or borrowing money from patients, en-
tering into a business relationship with a patient,
hiring a patient or soliciting patients to make
donations to charities or political parties.
Dr. Barbara Lent, one of the policy working
group’s members, said that it is important for
physicians to be aware of the increased risk as-
sociated with managing a dual relationship with
a patient. Such relationships may present the
potential for compromised professional judg-
ment and/or unreasonable patient expectations.
“Certainly, it is never appropriate for us to
borrow money from a patient because that
exploits the power imbalance inherent in the
ISSUE 2, 2019 DIALOGUE
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