Background: Optimal communication and collaboration between inter-disciplinary health care providers is critical to ensuring high quality patient care. We aimed to quantify the impact on physician-nurse collaboration (PNC) of implementing daily goal sheets (DGSs) in emergency settings.
Methods: The usage of a DGS was administered in morning rounds in an emergency intensive care unit (ICU) for four consecutive months. A Jefferson Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Nurse Collaboration (JSAPNC) form was used before (n=113) and after (n=107) the intervention to evaluate the attitudes of PNCs from the perspective of both physicians and nurses.
Results: There is a significant positive relation between the attitude to PNC and the participant age, educational background, and professional rank and title before DGS application (P<0.01 for each), whereas there was no significant difference observed after the initiation of the DGS.
Conclusions: The use of a DGS improves physician-nurse collaborations in emergency care settings.
Keywords: Emergency intensive care unit (EICU); daily goal sheet (DGS); physician-nurse collaboration.