A conceptual model of collaborative nurse-physician interactions: the management of traditional influences and personal tendencies.

In this article, the phenomena of "collaborative nurse-physician interactions" are analyzed as such encounters may be conceptualized in modern healthcare practice settings. The author observes that many writers have used either nonclinical or incomplete definitions when discussing nurse-physician collaboration, often paying little attention to the research which indicates that members of both groups consistently possess very different perspectives of what usually comprises collaboration. A conceptual model is presented to comprehensively illustrate the salient variables that have been suggested in the professional literature as affecting the quality, rate, and outcomes of the fundamental unit of nurse-physician collaboration: the collaborative interaction. The author asserts that although many of the peculiarities of the traditional nurse-physician relationship are generations old, contemporary patients' needs and modern practice conditions now mandate further conceptual development and research regarding these work encounters.