Frequency of nurse–physician collaborative behaviours in an acute care hospital

Interesting article written by: Dawn Marie Nair, (Department of Nursing, Fairfield University, 

Fairfield, CT

, USA); Joyce J. Fitzpatrick (Department of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, 

Cleveland, OH

, USA); Rita McNulty (Department of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, 

Cleveland, OH

, USA); Elizabeth R. Click (Department of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, 

Cleveland, OH

, USA); and Margaret M. Glembocki (Department of Nursing, Oakland University, 

Rochester, MI

, USA).

A new culture bolstering collaborative behavior among nurses and physicians is needed to merge the unique strengths of both professions into opportunities to improve patient outcomes. To meet this challenge it is fundamental to comprehend the current uses of collaborative behaviours among nurses and physicians. The purpose of this descriptive study was to delineate frequently used from infrequently used collaborative behaviours of nurses and physicians in order to generate data to support specific interventions for improving collaborative behavior. The setting was an acute care hospital, and participants included 114 registered nurses and 33 physicians with active privileges. The Nurse–Physician Collaboration Scale was used to measure the frequency of use of nurse–physician collaborative behaviors self-reported by nurses and physicians. The background variables of gender, age, education, ethnicity, years of experience, years practiced at the current acute care hospital, practice setting and professional certification were accessed. In addition to analyzing the frequency of collaborative behaviors, this study compares levels of collaborative behavior reported by nurses and physicians.
For more information, please read the Journal of Interprofessional Care, Early Online: http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/13561820.2011.637647