Iranian Nurses' Attitudes Toward Nurse-Physician Collaboration and its Relationship with Job Satisfaction

Introduction: Although nurses and physicians are known to share the common goal of improving the quality of health care, there has traditionally been a relational gap between them. The aim of the present study was to investigate the attitude of Iranian nurses about physician-nurse collaboration and its relationship with their job satisfaction. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 232 nurses were recruited from three educational hospitals of Zanjan University of medical sciences. Three questionnaires were used in this study; (a) Demographic data questionnaire, (2) Jefferson Scale of Attitudes toward Physician-Nurse Collaboration (JSAPNC), and (3) Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire. Results: In this study, the mean age of the participants was 33.22(SD= 6.13) years, 83.8% of nurses were female, 90.8% had a baccalaureate degree in nursing, and 82.5 % had rotational work shifts. The mean score of physician-nurse collaboration was found to be 48.07 (SD= 8.95) (ranged from 15 to 60), and the mean score of job satisfaction scale was 57.78 (SD = 14.67) (ranged from 20 to 100). There was a significant positive correlation between the attitudes toward physician-nurse collaboration and job satisfaction among the nurses (r=0.59, P≤0.001). Conclusion: The results indicated that the collaboration between nurses and physicians increases the job satisfaction of nurses working in clinical settings. Therefore, nurses and physicians should develop a new culture of collaboration with each other with the mutual goal of high quality patient care. Moreover, health care administrators should implement the strategies that strengthen the development of physician-nurse collaboration.