Physicians' perceptions of nurse-physician collaborative practice

Nurse-physician collaborative practice is different from and greater than nurse-physician collaboration. Collaboration is a single, temporal event that can occur intermittently in the day to day practice of health care. Nurse-physician collaborative practice is a dynamic process, a commitment to interact on a professional level, that empowers the participants to blend their talent, to achieve a goal that neither can do alone. Despite the fact that collaborative practice demonstration units in the early 1980's showed positive outcomes for patients, nurses, physicians and hospitals, this practice has all but disappeared. This researcher believes this practice modality to be vital in today's health care environment. This study, therefore, addressed the first step in reemergence by asking physicians to define the term, nurse-physician collaborative practice. Over 50% of this select population were able to provide definitions consistent with the health care literature.