Nurses and Physician's Collaborative Behaviors in Intensive Care Units

Collaboration is a basic strategy in relationships, which minimizes medical errors on patients. Therefore, it is measured in terms of engaging both physicians and nurses in decision-making, influencing patients, and minimizing the disease burden. This study aimed to analyze the perception of inter-professional relationship from the viewpoint of nurses working in Intensive Care Units (ICUs).
This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted on 109 nurses working in ICUs at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences selected through convenience sampling. The data were collected using Stichler’s Collaborative Behavior Scale. Then, the data were entered into the SPSS statistical software (v. 22) and were analyzed using Tukey’s test, independent t-test, Pearson’s correlation, and one-way ANOVA.
The nurses had dominantly a moderate viewpoint toward physician-nurse inter-professional behaviors (mean: 46.07±1.22). Besides, few nurses evaluated such behaviors as desirable or undesirable. Moreover, a significant relationship was observed between the nurses’ inter-professional behaviors and their workplace (F=7.34, P The results revealed moderate intra-professional behaviors from the nurses’ viewpoints. Therefore, it is essential to design a comprehensive plan to promote inter-professional behaviors. In this context, holding workshops and training courses for nursing and medical professors as well as students is recommended to identify professional values.