Examining Nurse Leader/Manager-Physician Communication Strategies: A Pilot Study

Abstract

A shared goal of all health care providers is to provide safe and quality care (IOM, 1972). In order to provide this there needs to be an understanding of how the communication of that care is delivered (IPEC, 2011). After a literature review we found no existing studies that described specific communication strategies used by nurse leaders to navigate nurse-physician communication and collaboration. Therefore, in this study we sought to gain initial insight from nurse leaders about how they were able to successfully navigate effective communication and collaboration with physicians. This pilot study used a qualitative approach to generate nurse leader/manager-reported strategies, using an interview guide developed from a literature review of the nurse-physician communication and collaboration literature. A convenience sample of six nurse leaders/managers at a large, Midwestern hospital was interviewed. Five themes, teamwork, respect, being direct, building relationships and role modeling were generated from the interview responses that provide initial direction for understanding effective nurse-physician communication.