Paper
Friday, July 13, 2007
The Association between Nurse-Physician Collaboration and Satifaction with the Decision-Making Process in the Ambulatory Care Setting
Jane Moore-Smithson, MSc, Hamilton Health Sciences/McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
| Learning Objective #1: assess and compare levels of collaboration and satisfaction between certified diabetes educator nurses and referring physicians when making treatment decisions in the ambulatory care clinic |
| Learning Objective #2: identify variables that impact on collaboration and satisfaction between nurses and physicians |
This descriptive, quantitative study was designed to investigate the association between nurse-physician collaboration and satisfaction with the decision-making process. Corser’s (1998) conceptual model of Collaborative Nurse-Physician Interaction was chosen as it supported that the fundamental unit of a joint work relationship is collaborative interaction. The study was conducted in hospital based, ambulatory care settings across southwestern Ontario. Participants included Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE) nurses and referring physicians. An adapted version of Baggs (1992) Collaboration and Satisfaction about Care Decisions (CSACD) questionnaire was utilized to gather information. Data collected on 38 nurses and 53 physicians were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Three research questions were answered and found: The level of nurse-physician collaboration was associated with satisfaction when making treatment decisions for newly diagnosed diabetes patients; Nurses were less satisfied as a group than physicians and; Age had a significant impact on nurse-physician collaboration. Recommendations included: further research is needed to evaluate the impact of age on collaboration; and formal education programs are required to increase knowledge about interprofessioal collaboration among healthcare disciplines.