Nurse-physician collaboration in an intensive care unit.

BACKGROUND

Collaborative interaction between nurses and physicians on critical care units is significantly related to mortality rates and length of stay in the units. For this reason, collaborative interaction should be an integral part of quality improvement programs.

OBJECTIVES

To examine perspectives of nurses and physicians on collaborative interaction in an intensive care unit, to examine differences between groups in perceptions of collaborative interaction in the unit, and to compare this unit with units examined in a national study.

METHODS

A modification of the ICU Nurse-Physician Questionnaire was used to collect data from 35 nurses and 45 physicians. Descriptive statistics and analysis of variance were used to determine group scores and to examine differences between groups.

RESULTS

The level of collaborative interaction in the unit was high. However, nurses and physicians and all other staff groups examined except one had significant differences in perceptions of collaborative interaction. The high level of collaborative interaction was confirmed by a comparison of the results with the results from a national sample.

CONCLUSIONS

Critical care units can use this example to incorporate an assessment of the level of collaborative interaction into their quality improvement program.