Psychosocial predictors of collaborative practice between nurses and physicians working in hospitals

Works from healthcare management and organizational psychology prove that psychosocial variables linked to professional identity are strongly associated with nurse-physician collaborative practice. However, literature pays little attention to the role of these variables. Moreover, evidence for the relation between collaborative practice on psychosocial variables for physicians is rather sparse. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among self-efficacy, team commitment, professional commitment, and collaborative practice in both nurses and physicians.

A cross-sectional survey was adopted and questionnaire was distributed to 269 nurses and 124 physicians working in different hospitals.

The perception of collaborative practice enhanced the self-efficacy and team commitment of both professionals. For nurses, professional commitment and self-efficacy positively predicted a willingness to collaborate; for physicians, professional commitment hindered a willingness to collaborate, while self-efficacy had no effect.

The study indicates that collaborative practice is an important contextual resource bolstering self-efficacy and team commitment in both professional groups. However, strong professional commitment hinders the willingness of physicians to collaborate with nurses in a way that recognizes the autonomy of nurses