Why “good” relationships between nurses and physicians are important to high-quality patient care.
In this article, 20 000 staff nurses tell their story about how they perceive, assess, and develop high-quality relationships with physicians in hospitals with the goal of improving patient care. This story is based on a synthesis of findings from 6 research studies, outlined in Table 1, as they pertain to nurse-physician relationships. In the Dimensions of Magnetism study1,–6 and in the psychometric studies7,8,17 described, 20 616 staff nurses identified and described 5 types of nurse-physician relationships that prevail on almost all clinical units. In the 4 interview studies,13 –16 721 staff nurses, 334 nurse managers, 229 physicians, 46 other health professionals, and 29 nurse and hospital administrators who were interviewed about nurse-physician and interdisciplinary relationships described not only the different types of relationships but...