Attitudes toward physician-nurse collaboration: A cross-cultural study of male and female physicians and nurses in the United States and Mexico

Background: Inter-professional collaboration between physicians and nurses, within and between cultures, can help contain cost and insure better patie nt outcomes. Attitude toward such collaboration is a function of the roles prescribed in the culture that guide professional behavior. Objectives: The purpose of the study was to test three research hypotheses concerning attitudes toward physician-nurse collaboration across genders, d isciplines, and cultures. Method: The Jefferson Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Nurse Collaborati on was administered to 639 physicians and nurses in the United States (n = 267) and Mexico (n = 372). Attitude scores were compared by gender (men, wo men), discipline (physicians, nurses), and culture (United States, Mexico) by using a three-way factorial analysis of variance design. Results: Findings confirmed the first research hypothesis by demonstrating that both physicians and nurses in the United States would express more pos itive attitudes toward physician-nurse collaboration than their counterpart s in Mexico. The second research hypothesis, positing that nurses as compar ed to physicians in both countries would express more positive attitudes to ward physician-nurse collaboration, was also supported. The third research hypothesis that female physicians would express more positive attitudes tow ard physician-nurse collaboration than their male counterparts was not conf irmed. Conclusions: Collaborative education for medical and nursing students, part icularly in cultures with a hierarchical model of inter-professional relati onship, is needed to promote positive attitudes toward complementary roles of physicians and nurses. Faculty preparation for collaboration is necessar y in such cultures before implementing collaborative education.