Physician-Nurse Relationship : Nurses' perception in internal medicine and surgical units

Abstract

This research focused on the perception of nurses who worked in the internal medicine and surgical units on physician-nurse relationship. The aim of the research was to find out the types of physician-nurse relationship in clinical settings, the associated factors and how patients could benefit from physician-nurse collaboration.

The research methodology was quantitative descriptive approach by survey design. For data collection, a questionnaire with 20 fixed questions was targeted at all 125 nurses working in the internal medicine and surgical units over a period of six weeks. The number of participants that partook in the study was 73 which represented 58,4% of the target group.

The results indicated 5 different types of physician-nurse relationships existed; the most common type was collegial relationship. Several factors were responsible for the types of physician-nurse relationship that existed; predominantly nurse autonomy and accountability. It also indicated that professional collaboration and patient education were beneficial to patient care.