ENDOCRINOLOGY COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE - SHARED RESPONSIBILITY FOR PATIENT-CARE AMONG PHYSICIANS AND NURSES

There is nothing new in finding nurses and physicians practicing along side one another in a variety of settings including an endocrinology p ractice. There are several models of interdisciplinary team approaches to patient care, most of which take place in private practice setting s. Here we outline a collaborative practice involving endocrinologists and an advanced practice nurse with specialization in endocrinology f rom both a personal and an institutional perspective. The practice set ting is a large urban Department of Veterans Affairs teaching hospital .