Defining Physician-Nurse Efforts toward Collaboration as Perceived by Medical Students

Area of Science:

• Healthcare professional collaboration
• Medical education
• Interprofessional teamwork

Background:

• Physician-nurse collaboration is crucial for high-quality patient care and outcomes.
• Effective interprofessional collaboration requires specific skills among healthcare professionals.
• Assessing medical students' attitudes towards physician-nurse collaboration is vital for future healthcare dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate medical students' perceptions of physician-nurse collaboration attitudes.
• To identify factors influencing these attitudes among pre-clinical and clinical students.
• To inform curriculum development for interprofessional education.

Main Methods:

• A descriptive, cross-sectional study design was employed.
• The Jefferson Scale of Attitude toward Physician-nurse Collaboration (JSAPNC) was utilized.
• The JSAPNC was translated into Arabic for the study population.

Main Results:

• The overall mean JSAPNC score was 46.55, lower than reported in other studies.
• No significant differences in total JSAPNC scores were found based on age, clinical exposure, or year level.
• Significant differences were observed in the 'shared education and teamwork' and 'caring as opposed to curing' factors (p < 0.05).

Conclusions:

• Medical students' attitudes towards physician-nurse collaboration may require enhancement.
• Integrating interprofessional education into the medical curriculum is recommended.
• Future physicians need to be prepared to collaborate effectively with nursing colleagues.