Doctor and nurse perception of inter-professional co-operation in hospitals.
OBJECTIVE
To explore doctor and nurse perception of inter-professional co-operation in hospitals; discuss professional differences as reflections of cultural diversity in the perspective of quality improvement.


METHODS
Cross-sectional survey data from a stratified sample of 15 Norwegian hospitals, September 1998: 551 doctors and 2050 nurses at medical and surgical wards. Measures. Doctor and nurse evaluation of their inter-professional co-operation was mapped. Logistic regression models predicting their satisfaction were compared.


RESULTS
Doctors were significantly more often than nurses satisfied with the inter-professional co-operation of the two groups. Satisfaction with inter-professional co-operation was predicted by a number of work situation variables. Some of them contribute differently to doctor and nurse satisfaction.


CONCLUSIONS
Doctors and nurses not only evaluate their inter-professional co-operation differently, they also appear to define the concept in different ways. Hospital managers should include an understanding of this cultural diversity into the basis of their quality improvement efforts.
Krogstad
Unni
U
University of Oslo, Department of General Practice and Community Medicine, Norway. unni.krogstad@nhsrc.no
Hofoss
Dag
D
Hjortdahl
Per
P
D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008297:Male; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway; D015279:Organizational Culture; D019555:Physician-Nurse Relations; D017749:Total Quality Management