Nurse's Perceptions of Nurse-Physician Relationships: Medical Surgical Versus Intensive Care

Johnson, Sherita L.

Monday, 31 October 2011

Sherita L. Johnson, RN, MSN
Nursing Cardiac Intensive Care, Forsyth Medical Center, Winston Salem, NC
Daria L. Kring, PhD
Nursing Administration, Forsyth Medical Center, Winston-Salem, NC

Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to discuss differences in nurses’ perceptions of collaborative efforts between nurses and physicians in medical-surgical versus intensive care units.

Learning Objective 2: At the conclusion of this presentation the participant will be able to identify the significance of positive nurse-physician collaborations.

Collaboration between nurses and physicians is essential in fostering interdisciplinary relationships. Specialty practice may influence the quality of this collaboration. The purpose of this research study was to identify differences in nurses’ perceptions of collaborative efforts between nurses and physicians in medical-surgical (MSU) units versus intensive care units (ICU).

A descriptive, survey methodology was employed. Nurses in three ICUs and eight MS units within our 975-bed Magnet hospital completed a 25-item Nurse-Physician Relationship survey, used in previous studies on RN-MD communication.

The sample (N=170) consisted of 54% med-surg nurses and 46% ICU nurses. There were no statistically significant differences in the demographic variables between the MSU and ICU nurses, except for educational degree. A greater percentage of ICU nurses held a bachelor’s degree. This study found that although there are some differences in ICU and MSU nurses’ perceptions of RN-MD collaboration, in general there are more similarities. Overall, nurses were satisfied with RN-MD relationships, with 75% of ICU and 65% of MSU nurses reporting satisfaction (p= 0.110). MSU nurses were less likely to participate in interdisciplinary rounds than ICU nurses (p < 0.001). ICU nurses were more likely than MSU nurses to report that physicians treat nurses like handmaidens (p = 0.056) and that physicians displayed unprofessional behavior (p = 0.019).

This study found that certain nursing specialty areas are not immune to problems with RN-MD relationships. Rather, all clinical service lines should be concerned with fostering collegiality between nurses and their physician partners.

Reference:

1. Nelson, G. A., King, M.L., & Brodine, S. (2008). Nurse-physician collaboration on medical-surgical units. MedSurg Nursing. 23(6). Retrieved January 8, 2011, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FSS/is_1_17/ai_n24964202/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1

2. Sirota, T. (2007). Nurse physician relationships: Improving or not. Nursing2007, 37(1), 52-55.

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