Most of the advice here assumes you are talking of a modern relatively light narrowboat - some things would not be so applicable to a cruiser type of craft. Jonny P replied as I was writing, but I too would often kick/push the stern out and reverse out of a mooring before then going back into head gear with the elum over to take the fore end out.. If there a lot of crud on the bottom you want to avoid being in gear alongside the bank as much as possible, so that is the best way. It also means you have not left the steering position and your access to the gear and throttle at any point.
My experience is with heavier boats, but I have generally found prop wash noticeable and certainly something to be aware of and make use of as much as you can. For instance a right-handed blade will send the stern to port in reverse, so coming downhill into a wide lock it is preferable to come to the lock wall on your left, let the fore end touch the wall and give the engine a quick burst of reverse to stop and pull the whole boat in parallel with the wall. This makes coming in to a mooring on one side easier than the other too.
In reverse it is extremely important to hold the tiller very firmly, as it can very easily swing hard over very abruptly. You should also not be stood where you would be knocked into the water should that happen. If you do a have a boat with prop bias in reverse it might help to consider that at that point you have effectively a 2' or whatever rudder blade being steered by 20' or whatever hull.
If you do feel that wind or current is pulling the boat away see if there is a bollard, tree or something to take a turn around - fishermen's stools or other portable things don't work though. 😃