Physician-Nurse Relationships in Clinical Settings: A Review and Critique of the Literature, 1966-1992

Abstract

Over the past few decades, economic, legal, technological, demographic, and political changes in the social context of health care in the United States have produced significant modifications in perceptions and expectations of the health care system. The quality of care provided within health services institutions, encompassed within the catch phrase &dquo;continuous quality improvement&dquo; or &dquo;total quality management,&dquo; is a focus of much discussion and even a mandate by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). Specific methods of quality improvement remain questionable; yet multidisciplinary collaboration and teamwork have been identified by most writers as vital components of the quality improvement process

Nurse-Physician Communication in the Long-Term Care Setting

“…The results of both the quantitative and qualitative parts of our study confirm the findings of previous studies in different settings that identify lack of professionalism 15, 28, 29, inadequate collaboration 30, lack of timely call backs by physicians9, 11, 31, 32, and physician disinterest31 as commonly occurring issues affecting nurse-physician communication. Our study also found that working with a covering physician, time constraints and nurse preparedness were issues of particular importance the LTC setting.…”

Comparisons of American, Israeli, Italian and Mexican physicians and nurses on the total and factor scores of the Jefferson scale of attitudes toward physician–nurse collaborative relationships

“…The hierarchical model places more emphasis on factors such as the gender divisions of labor in society (Sweet and Norman, 1995), professional elitism, and gender role stereotypes ( Blickensderfer, 1996;Fagin, 1992;Giardino et al, 1994;Hojat et al, 1997;McMahan et al, 1994;Prescott and Bowen, 1985;Sprague-McRae, 1996). This model naturally places medicine far above nursing in patient care responsibilities ( Shein, 1972).…”

“…This model naturally places medicine far above nursing in patient care responsibilities ( Shein, 1972). As a result, adversarial relationships can develop between physicians and nurses ( Blickensderfer, 1996;Huntington and Shores, 1993;McMahan et al, 1994;PavlovichDanis et al, 1998;Prescott and Bowen, 1985).…”

Nurse-Physician Relationships in Hospitals: 20 000 Nurses Tell Their Story

“…[18][19][20][21] In all of these writings, what constitutes good or high-quality relationships between physicians and nurses is seldom defined, and when an attempt is made to assess goodness, nurse-physician relationships are measured as though all interactions between nurses and physicians on …”