Multidisciplinary Intervention in Communication and Collaboration among Physicians and Nurses - Article Example

For this purpose, a survey was conducted on a medical inpatient unit in a tertiary care hospital at the University of California for a period of two years. One wing of the hospital was used for the experiment and the other served as the control unit with usual services. Nurses, attending physicians, and residents were randomized between the control and intervention units for the study. Usual staffing included attending physicians (n=45), residents, and interns (n=111) in the control and intervention unit with 123 nurses. The intervention was conducted by the addition of one nurse practitioner, hospitalist medical director who oversaw the nurse practitioner and attending physician, Multidisciplinary rounds in hospitals are also conducted.

Then survey was conducted measuring the extent of communication and collaboration between the two unit’s nurses and physicians. The questionnaire consisted of collaboration questions between doctors and nurses and their combined efforts in decision making. The physician’s questionnaire involved the investigation about the quality of communication, services, and information they received Response rates resulted in 58% for house staff, 69% for attending physicians, and 91% for nurses.

Results show increased collaboration of physicians with nurse practitioners than the staff nurses in the intervention unit (<.001). The highest difference was found between the residents who rated high collaboration with nurses in the intervention unit(66.9). Nurses' collaboration with physicians did not differ with physicians in both units but rated higher for collaboration with nurse practitioners than physicians. The physician on the intervention unit reported better communication among them.

Physicians and nurses can work together to improve the health of the patients. Teamwork can be promoted by training, planning, practice, and shifting the responsibility of decision making from the leaders to the individual who is carrying out the duty. However, the traditional healthcare system is based on doctors’ dominance and nurses’ submission. By the intervention in the study collaboration and communication among physician and nurses was improved especially among the residents which indicate that collaborative framework development can be easily obtained during training. Communication was enhanced between the staff nurse and physician because of additional nurse practitioner (NP) and the flow of information and effective decision making was improved. Nurses did not have communication problems dealing with the colleague nurse than to risk challenging doctor by giving their views. The nurse practitioner took daily rounds with the physician and residents and was involved in effective decision-making.

Effective techniques of communication and teamwork skills should be developed among physicians and nurses which is not only important for transforming the work environment but an effective tool for strong nurse leadership.  For this purpose training and mentoring are required for the nurses to develop better communication skills and evidence-based practice, which support the management of healthy workplaces. It also results in increased patient satisfaction, lower personal stress, enhanced professional relationships, and low turnover. Moreover, the role of the nurse practitioner should also be determined as it allows the nurses to clinically focus while maintaining leadership status.