Abstract: This study examined the role that experience plays in nurse-physician collaboration and how this experience affects the level of job stress that entails among the health workers. 191 health workers comprising of 102 nurses and 89 physicians were involved, this include 26 female and 63 male physicians, and 68 female and 34 male nurses. Perceived stress scale by Cohen (1983) and Satisfaction about Care Decisions developed by Baggs (1994) were employed as measures of job stress and nurse-physician collaboration respectively. The result showed that tenure of service has a significant effect on job stress and collaboration among nurses, workers with greater than ten years of service reporting higher level of collaboration and lower level of job stress compared with their counterparts of fewer years of experience. Collaborative practice is suggested between doctors and nurses at all cadres, and mentoring should be encouraged among the senior and the junior health workers so as to bring confidence on the job and consequently reduce the experience of stress.
[1] William, S., Michie, S., and Pattani, S. (1998).Improving the health of the NHS workforce: report of the partnership on the health of the NHS workforce.Nuffield Trust London UK.
[2] Dolland, m., Winefielf,A., De Joge,J.(2000). Psychological job starin and productivity in human service workers: a test of the demand control support model. Journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 73:501-511.
[3] Thoits, P. (1995). Stress, coping and social support processes: where we are? What next? Journal of health and social behaviour, 36(1) 53-79.
[4] Adebayo S.O. (2001). Social psychology of ethnic group relations in Nigeria.A publication of psychomotor communication; Lagos pp24-38.
[5] Schutz, W.C. (1955). What makes group productive. Human Relations 8,429-465. [6] Cohen S., Kamarck. T., &Mermelstein, R. (1983).A global measure of perceived stress.Journal of health and social behaviour. 24, 386-396
[7] Baggs, J.G. (1994). Development of an instrument to measure collaboration and satisfaction about care decisions.Advance Journal on Nurses 20, 176-182.
[8] Cherniss, C. (1986). Staff Burnout, Job Stress in Human Service. Beverly Hills, CA: sage
[9] Kurtz, M.W. (1980). A behavioural profile of physician managerial roles, in R. Schenke, (ed). The physician in management. Washington DC: Artisan, 33-34
[10] Di Megho,K., Padula, C., Piatetek, C., KorberS.,Barrett, A., Ducharm,M., Lucas, S., Piemont,N., Joyal,E., DeNichola, V. and Carry,K. (2005). Group cohesion and nurse satisfaction.Examination of a team-building approach. Journal of Nursing Administration, 35(3): 110-120