Inter Professional Collaboration: Attitude of Nurses and Physicians of Ardabil's Intensive Care Units

Abstract

Background & aim: Inappropriate collaboration between nurse-physician effects on patient outcomes, job satisfaction of nurses, and hospital costs. This study aimed to determine nurses and physicians attitude toward nurse-physician collaboration in intensive care units of Ardabil. Methods: This descriptive correlational study was performed on 126 nurses and 61 physicians working in intensive care units of educational and therapeutic centers of Ardabil University of Medical Sciences. Data were collected using the Jefferson scale of attitudes toward the nurse-physician collaboration. Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation and frequency) and inferential statistics (T-test and one-way ANOVA) were used to analyze the data. Results: The mean scores of the nurse-physician collaboration from nurses and physicians viewpoints were 47.83±3.9 and 47.85±4.25, respectively. There was no significant difference between attitudes of nurses and physicians toward collaboration (p=0.97). Comparing the scores of nurses-physicians in the four areas showed asignificant difference in "care vs. treatment" (p=0.025) and "nurses autonomy" (p=0.008) areas. Conclusion: The results showed that nurses and physicians had a positive attitude toward nurse-physician collaboration. However, in some areas of collaboration, there are still differences in the attitudes of nurses and physicians. Given the importance of nurse-physician collaboration, especially in intensive care units, planning is needed to improve their attitude toward collaboration.