The lived experiences of Indian nurses working in the United States : perceptions and attitudes towards nurse-physician collaboration

Abstract

Nurse-physician collaboration has received much attention over the past decade in the USA. The release of three reports from the Institute of Medicine implicated poor communication and collaboration among nurses and physicians as a major contributing factor to the incidence of sentinel events and medical errors. Despite the growing awareness of the imperative related to collaboration between nurses and physicians to ensure patient safety, the problem of poor nurse-physician collaboration remains endemic throughout the country. Indian nurses, along with many other internationally educated nurses, comprise 12-15.2% of the nursing workforce in the USA. Little is known about how Indian nurses culture potentially influences their ability to effectively collaborate with physicians to ensure patient safety. The purpose of this study is to understand Indian nurses’ attitudes and perceptions about nurse-physician collaboration. Hermeneutic interpretive phenomenology as influenced by the work of Martin Heidegger guided this study through the use of interviews via Skype. The overall experience of the Indian nurses was of one experiencing a dramatic positive change in nurse-physician collaboration in the USA as compared to India. Four themes emerged describing this phenomenon: Respect/feeling heard, Being Trusted, Assurance of Accountability, and Finding Freedom. Indian nurses practicing in the USA find a freedom that empowers them to collaborate with physicians for patient safety. They, as all nurses may, benefit from continuing educational opportunities that demonstrate ways to collaborate more fully.