The topic of interest is the concept of the nurse-physician relationship, from the perspective of the nurse. The article that was examined was Sirota’s “Nurse/Physician Relationships: Improving or Not?”, which addresses persistent dilemmas that occur within the nurse-physician relationship and offers strategies from change within those problems. The article begins with a number of statistics from the Nursing91 study, which took place in 1991. About 43% of nurses felt satisfied with their respective relationships to physicians, while 68% of the nurses surveyed doubted that physicians fully understood the extent of nursing responsibilities (Sirota, 2007, p. 52). However, much has changed throughout the years with many agencies promoting interdisciplinary…show more content… Sirota lists out a few of these issues, which include disruptive behavior by the physician, a dismissive attitude toward nurses, power and gender issues, and communication and collaboration problems. Physicians that exhibit disruptive behavior aimed at nurses can contribute to decreased job satisfaction and can be originated from other issues, such as gender, power, and hierarchal gaps (Sirota, 2007, p. 53). When there is a dismissive attitude directed at nurses, it can often originate because of differing perceptions of the patient and their needs (Sirota, 2007, p. 53). The gender component of nurse-physician relationships seems to be declining, yet there is still evidence of male physicians continuing to exercise control over a majority female group of nurses. Sirota concludes the issues with the most important of them all: communication and collaboration problems. Miscommunication can originate from all of the aforementioned factors, especially power and gender issues, and a dismissive attitude toward nurses (Sirota, 2007, p. 54). This poor communication will continue to exist as long as physicians view their roles as superior to nurses (Sirota, 2007, p.…show more content… Perhaps an in-service or a seminar for physicians can be useful in teaching them the roles of the nurse. There should be facility policies in place that address physicians who exhibit rude, unpleasant, dismissive, or intimidating behavior. These behaviors by the physicians have been cited as a contributing factor to the nursing shortage (Smith, 2004, p. 163). To put it simply, nurses do not want to work with mean physicians. As stated earlier, these behaviors can be related to gender issues, power gaps, hierarchal traditions, or a view of nurses as the physician’s servants rather than collaborative professionals (Sirota, 2007, p. 53). By educating physicians and addressing unprofessional behavior, the nurse-physician relationship can become a positive
