Description/Overview: Patient safety and quality are recognized as priorities in healthcare organizations across the care continuum. Nurses and physicians are identified as major influencers of these priorities in the U.S. and across the world. Collaboration and effective communication are essential to providing safe, patient focused and efficient care. Although both professions have made progress in building collaborative relationships and working together to achieve superior patient outcomes, the issue of disruptive behavior between nurses and physicians continues to interfere with patient safety and adversely affects teamwork in the work environment. All of the above contribute to errors and delayed treatment. The lack of acknowledgement that disruptive behavior is a serious problem in healthcare has led to environments of “willful blindness” in which leaders oftentimes either ignore the behavior or their attempts to resolve the issue are inadequate. This symposium will address disruptive behaviors between nurses and physicians using data collected from two healthcare systems in different parts of the U.S. The IRB approved survey results will be compared to the American Organization of Nurse Executive survey results and to the American College of Physician Executive findings. Each of the three presentations will focus on how the results were used to improve communication, collaboration and patient outcomes and how the data facilitated changes in behavioral expectations, education for both nurses and physicians and implementation of new performance measures as a process of recognition and strengthening shared accountability for teamwork and building and sustaining a positive work environment.