ABSTRACT
Ethical and legal considerations of nursing are not purely academic; they have consequences for the way in which individual practitioners think about and perform their roles. Community nurses may be seen as independent practitioners in the true sense of the term; often, they are isolated from their colleagues when performing their professional duties. Recent initiatives have reinforced the call for more interprofessional and multi-agency working. In order for this to be effective, the members of the team need to be clear about their roles and the boundaries within which they are working.
