Aim: The aim of the study was to determine prevalence of boundary violation and narrate lived experiences of undergraduate outgoing nursing students of various nursing educational institutions in Mohali & Ropar district. Material & method: A mixed method approach was used where cross sectional descriptive survey supplemented by in-depth interview was employed. The conceptual framework used to guide this study was based on Theory of Planned Behavior & Theory of Reasoned Action. Nursing Boundary Index Self-Checklist was developed, used to determine prevalence of boundary violation where as in-depth interview was conducted to narrate the lived experiences of study subjects.  A total of 286 nursing students were selected using convenience sampling for survey & 11 subjects selected for in-depth interview using critical case sampling technique. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS.V22 whereas qualitative data was analyzed using colaizzi’s approach.

Results: The overall prevalence of boundary violation among outgoing nursing students was 9.62%. Prevalence rate of boundary violation were explored for role boundaries (28.45%), Time boundaries (17.10%), Intimacy boundaries (15.0%), Language boundaries (8.30%), Social boundaries (8.0%), Self-disclosure boundaries (5.70%), Cloth boundaries (5.60%), Physical boundaries (4.80%), Place boundaries (3.50%), Gift boundaries (2.70%) & Social-sites boundaries (2.20%). Age of the subjects and course enrolled with was observed significantly associated with boundary violation (p<0.05).The themes related to boundary violation that emerged from qualitative data analysis were Social relationship, Negligence/Malpractice, Over involvement, Role related issue, Verbal aggression, Accepting gifts , & Unprofessional Attitude and Time related violations.

Conclusion: The study concluded that overall prevalence of boundary violation among outgoing nursing students was low and observed associated with age and with course enrolled with subjects.

Keywords: Professional boundary violation, Professional boundaries, Nurse students, Nurses, Nursing boundary