Nurses' assessment of pediatric physicians: are hospitalists different?

The interaction between physicians and nurses represents a critical aspect of patient care. The numbers and influence of hospitalists-physicians who provide care to hospitalized patients-continue to increase. However, studies of interactions between nurses and hospitalists are limited. As a bridge to that gap, we studied pediatric nurses' assessment of pediatric hospitalists along with other categories of pediatric physicians (e.g., residents, surgeons) in terms of these physicians' interactions with nurses and patients and the quality of care they provide. Pediatric nurses at a tertiary children's hospital were invited to complete an anonymous online survey. They were asked to rate different categories of physicians according to various qualities of the nurse-physician relationship and patient care. Nurses were also given an opportunity to provide feedback regarding pediatric hospitalists' role in comanaging medically complex surgical patients. Our findings indicate that nurses ranked pediatric hospitalists and residents at the top in terms of nurse-physician interaction. In addition, nurses rated pediatric hospitalists highest for patient care qualities and indicated their overwhelming preference for hospitalists to comanage medically complex surgical patients. As our findings suggest, nurses may interact differently with hospitalists than with other types of physicians. As hospitalists become more influential in U.S. hospitals, it is important that positive relationships are carefully developed between nurses and hospitalists. Hospitalist programs may be key to improving the nursing practice environment and may lead to the retention of nurses.