Work success and the physician-nurse professional relationship in emergency departments

Background. Considering the importance of physician-nurse relationship in emergency departments and its role in improving the quality of services, patient satisfaction, job success and staff satisfaction, this study was conducted to investigate nurses' attitude about the professional doctor-nurse relationship and career success of the nurses in emergency departments. Methods. This study is a descriptive study in which 197 nurses working in the emergency departments of hospitals affiliated to Tabriz University of Medical Sciences participated. Data collection tools included demographic characteristic; physician-nurse professional communication questionnaire and nurses' career success questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical tests with SPSS ver.21 statistical software. Results. The findings showed that the mean (SD) of the professional physician-nurse relationship from the perspective of participating nurses was 3.07 (0.54). Cooperating dimension with the mean score of 3.34 (0.79) had the highest score and imposing opinions and tasks dimension with the mean score of 2.62 (0.85) had the lowest score. Also, the mean (SD) score of nurses’ career success was 4.21 (0.40) with the highest mean in the dimension of system assistant 4.33 (0.55) and the lowest mean in the effective dimension 4.08 (0.41). Conclusion. Considering the importance of the professional physician-nurse relationship, it is necessary to pay more attention to the effective factors in its promotion by implementing interventions such as professional communication skills training and effective interaction in strengthening the professional relationship of the treatment team. Practical Implications. The results of this study can be used to improve professional communication between health care team members and their work success. As a result, in addition to increasing job satisfaction and improving the psychological condition of personnel, the safety of patients will also be increased and the amount of injuries caused by communication defects will be decreased.