Nurse Physician Disruptive Behavior: A Chief Nurse in South Africa's Perspective

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to replicate the United States study on "Disruptive Behavior between physicians and nurses" and compare the findings to physicians and nurses in South Africa.  Because of the effect of disruptive behavior on the work environment and the individual(s) involved, the study was undertaken to raise awareness and offer nurse and physician leaders an opportunity to change the culture of acceptance to one of action and support. 

Methods: The study was replicated in hospitals selected by the author, approved and administered using a similar approach to the mail survey from the US.  The fifteen question survey was used in its orignal form and data collected after receipt of organizational approvals.

Results: The results indicate that both phsycians and nurses recognize the problem and the findings are similar to the physician and nurse groups in the United States.  However, it is clear that both groups of physician and nurses leaders (US and SA) do not have a consistent approach in addressing the issues and oftentimes overlook the serious nature of the problem and its consequences on the individual, team and organization.

Conclusion: It is important that physicians and nurses recognize and address the issue of disruptive behavior in healthcare.  These findings demonstrate that there is an awareness of the issue but a lack of strategies used to successfully solve the issues. The results of the study and comparison data from the United States will be used by nurse and physician leaders in South Africa to start a dialogue about disruptive behavior and its effect on patient outcomes and what can we do as interprofessional partners to improve collaboration.   An important implication from doing the study and this presentation is the importance of understanding the global health care work environment and the challenges facing the workforce and what recommendations could be made to the education of physicians and nurses as part of their learning about their roles.  I would hope that we can continue to sponsor global interprofessional discussions in future meetings.