Understanding how to judge appropriate degrees of closeness and distance in professional relationships is an ongoing challenge for all practitioners. A critical element of being able to practice as a nurse is the ability to successfully establish, maintain and conclude therapeutic relationships. In the Waikato region, nurses are employed in rural towns, where they also live. These nurses may have family connections and/or limited ability to socialise with people other than those people who are likely to be users of the health services they provide within these communities. This presentation reports on the findings of the qualitative arm of a larger project exploring 3rd year undergraduate nursing students’ understanding of how to manage professional boundaries in relationships with the clients, families and communities they will work with as graduates. The qualitative approach was guided by Kruger and Casey’s (2015) approach to focus group research. Three brief case studies on professional situations with clients were used to stimulate discussion within the focus groups. Focus groups were video recorded and transcribed verbatim. The ‘long table’ approach was used to organise the transcribed data, and data interpretation was undertaken using five criteria including frequency, motion, specificity of responses, extensiveness and big picture. Three key themes were developed from the data including Community responsiveness, Trust and integrity, and Professional mandate and therapeutic purpose. Overall, students had a good understanding of the professional responsibilities involved in maintaining therapeutic relationships, though challenges in informal consultations with family, neighbours or members of their community were not identified.