Boundary Violations: Personal

Physician-Patient Relationship

1. A regulated member must maintain professional boundaries in any interaction with a patient including, but not limited to:
   1. providing adequate draping:
   2. providing privacy while the patient is undressing or dressing;
   3. obtaining informed consent for intimate or sensitive examinations; and
   4. using appropriate examination techniques when touching sensitive or personal areas of the body including, but not limited to, breasts, genitalia or anus.
2. A regulated member must consider and minimize any potential conflict of interest or risk of coercion when engaging with a patient in a non-clinical context (i.e., in a personal, social, financial or business relationship).
3. A regulated member must not:
   1. enter into a close personal relationship with a patient or any person with whom a patient has a significant interdependent relationship (e.g., parent, guardian, child or significant other);
   2. socialize or communicate with a patient for the purpose of pursuing a close personal relationship; or
   3. terminate a physician-patient relationship for the purpose of pursuing a close personal relationship.
4. A regulated member must not enter into a close personal relationship with a former patient unless:
   1. the regulated member has never provided the patient with psychotherapeutic treatment;
   2. there is minimal risk of a continuing power imbalance; and
   3. sufficient time has passed since the last clinical encounter, given the nature and extent of the physician-patient relationship.
5. A regulated member must not promote his/her personal or religious beliefs or causes to a patient in the context of the physician-patient relationship.

Physician-Learner and Physician-Subordinate Relationships

6. A regulated member must not:
   1. sexualize a teacher-learner relationship by making sexual comments or gestures toward a learner¹;
   2. enter into a close personal or sexual relationship with a learner while directly or indirectly responsible for mentoring, teaching, supervising or evaluating that learner; or
   3. enter into any relationship with a learner that could present a risk of conflict of interest or coercion while directly or indirectly responsible for mentoring, teaching and/or evaluating that learner.
7. A regulated member who has a pre-existing (current or past) close personal or sexual relationship with a learner or a subordinate physician must:
   1. notify the applicable clinical and academic leaders of the relationship;
   2. remove him/herself from any role teaching or evaluating the subordinate physician or learner; and
   3. remove him/herself from any discussion of the performance of the subordinate physician or learner.

^{1.“Learner” includes, but is not limited to, clinical trainee, medical student, other health professional learner, graduate student, resident or fellow.}