Inter-professional relationships issues among iranian nurses and physicians: A qualitative study

Abstract

Introduction: Nurse-physician inter-professional relationship is an important issue in health care system that can affect job satisfaction and patient care quality. The present study explores the major issues of nurse-physician inter-professional relationships in Iran. Materials and Methods: In this in-depth qualitative content analysis study conducted in 2014, 12 participants (5 physicians and 7 nurses) were recruited from two educational hospitals. The data were collected from deep, open, and unstructured interviews, and analyzed based on content analysis. Results: The participants in this study included 12 individuals, 6 females and 6 males, with the age ranging 27-48 years and tenure ranging 4-17 years. Four themes were identified, namely, divergent attitudes, uneven distribution of power, mutual trust destructors, and prudence imposed on nurses. Conclusions: The results revealed some major inter-professional issues and challenges in nurse-physician relationships, some of which are context-specific whereas others should be regarded as universal. It is through a deep knowledge of these issues that nurses and physicians can establish better collaborative inter-professional relationships.