Role Perceptions among Occupational Groups in an Ambulatory Care Setting

Effective multidisciplinary health care teams require a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of each group. This paper reports on a study of role perceptions among three occupational groups in a medical setting-physicians, nurses, and administrative personnel. Each group was asked to assess the extent to which their group and each of the others were involved in performing each of several activities. It was hypothesized that differences in perception are related to professional aspiration level, and that the greatest differences in perception would be related to the functions carried out by groups with the highest level of professional aspiration. The results confirmed this hypothesis. Nurses, highest in professional aspiration level among the three groups, showed consistently different perceptions in their role as compared with other groups' perceptions of their role. Implications for management and research are discussed.