Teaching nursing students about terminating professional relationships, boundaries, and social media.

Nurse educators should teach students about the nature of the nurse-patient relationship, which is a professional relationship and different from other relationships they have. In addition to teaching students how to establish relationships with their patients, nurse educators should also teach students about terminating relationships with patients. Without this professional guidance, nursing students may be tempted to use social media to maintain a relationship with patients. This may inadvertently lead to professional boundary violations, causing harm to patients and problems for nursing students or nurses.