Evaluating Interprofessional Communication Dynamics in Clinical Practice: How Doctors and Nurses Orchestrate Information Exchange
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61919/7ba5gg28Keywords:
Physician–nurse collaboration; Interprofessional communication; Shared education; Teamwork; Nurse autonomy; Hierarchical culture.Abstract
Background: Effective physician–nurse collaboration is essential for safe, coordinated, and high-quality patient care, yet hierarchical norms and role-based expectations often hinder communication and shared decision-making in clinical settings. Understanding profession-specific attitudes is crucial for designing interventions that strengthen interprofessional teamwork. Objective: To compare doctors’ and nurses’ attitudes toward shared education and teamwork, caring versus curing, physician dominance, and nurse autonomy in a public tertiary care hospital in Lahore. Methods: A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted among 100 physicians and 100 nurses selected through stratified random sampling. Attitudes were measured using the 15-item Jefferson Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician–Nurse Collaboration. Domain scores were calculated as means on a 1–4 scale and compared between groups using independent t-tests at a significance level of p < 0.05. Results: Nurses demonstrated significantly more positive attitudes toward shared education and teamwork (3.6 vs. 3.2, p = 0.03) and higher, though non-significant, scores for caring versus curing (3.4 vs. 2.8, p = 0.12). Physicians scored significantly higher on physician dominance (3.5 vs. 2.8, p = 0.01), while nurses showed greater support for nurse autonomy (3.1 vs. 2.7, p = 0.22). Conclusion: Nurses exhibited more collaborative attitudes across most domains, whereas physicians endorsed stronger hierarchical authority, reflecting persistent structural imbalances that may impede teamwork. Targeted interprofessional education, shared decision-making frameworks, and enhanced nursing autonomy may improve collaborative practice.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Aqsa Arshed, Fawad Khan, Zeeshan Ahmed, Samina Kaosar (Author)
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