A Quantitative Study of Locus of Control and Perception of Nurse-Physician Collaboration among Nurses Working in the Acute Care Settin

The concept of interprofessional collaboration in health care is complex and important to producing positive patient, clinician, and organizational outcomes. Effective nurse-physician collaboration is a factor in the provision of safe and effective patient care. Despite substantial efforts to improve nurse-physician collaboration in the hospital setting, this ideal has not been attained. The problem examined in this study was that nurse-physician collaboration is perceived to be poor by nurses. The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between nurse locus of control and nurse-physician collaboration. The researcher employed a quantitative correlational design to determine if there were statistically significant relationships between the predictor variable of locus of control and the criterion variable of nurse-physician collaboration. Ninety-seven registered nurses who worked on acute care nursing units in a large medical center in the eastern United States participated in the study. Multiple linear regression analysis resulted in positive statistically significant relationships between a more internal locus of control and the composite nurse-physician interprofessional collaboration scores ( p < .001) as well as the nurse-physician interprofessional collaboration subscales of communication (p < .001) and accommodation (p < .001) and a negative statistically significant relationship between a more internal locus of control and the nurse physician interprofessional collaboration subscale of isolation ( p < .001). The results of this study show a relationship between a more internal locus of control and the positive outcome of higher perception of nurse-physician collaboration. Recommendations for future research include studying a larger number of participants and utilizing an ethnographic approach to more fully understand the participants' lived experiences.