title: Inter-professional Relationships Issues among Iranian Nurses and Physicians: A Qualitative Study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nurse-physician inter-professional relationship is an important issue in health care system that can affect job satisfaction and patient care quality. The present study explores the major issues of nurse-physician inter-professional relationships in Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this in-depth qualitative content analysis study conducted in 2014, 12 participants (5 physicians and 7 nurses) were recruited from two educational hospitals. The data were collected from deep, open, and unstructured interviews, and analyzed based on content analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The participants in this study included 12 individuals, 6 females and 6 males, with the age ranging 27-48 years and tenure ranging 4-17 years. Four themes were identified, namely, divergent attitudes, uneven distribution of power, mutual trust destructors, and prudence imposed on nurses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results revealed some major inter-professional issues and challenges in nurse-physician relationships, some of which are context-specific whereas others should be regarded as universal. It is through a deep knowledge of these issues that nurses and physicians can establish better collaborative inter-professional relationships.
authors.affiliation: Birjand Health Qualitative Research Center, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.
authors.forename: Samaneh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakhaee
authors.affiliation: Birjand Health Qualitative Research Center, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.
authors.forename: Ahmad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nasiri
keywords: Inter-professional relations; Iran; nurses; physicians; qualitative research