Relationship Between Nurses and Physicians in Terms of Organizational Culture: Who Is Responsible for Subordination of Nurses?

Aim To investigate how nurses and physicians perceive organizational culture, their integration into the organizational processes, and relations within a health care team. Methods We performed a cross-sectional study that included 106 physicians and 558 nurses from 14 Slovenian hospitals in December 2005. The hospitals were randomly selected. We distributed the questionnaires on the same day to physicians and nurses during a morning shift. The total number of distributed questionnaires represented a 20% of each personnel category at each hospital. The following variables were studied: organizational culture, integration of nurses and physicians in hospital processes, and subordination of nurses to physicians. Results Physicians and nurses favored a culture of internal focus, stability, and control. Both groups estimated that they had a low level of personal involvement in their organizations and indicated insufficient involvement in work teams, while nurses also thought that they were subordinated to physicians (mean ± standard deviation, 3.6 ± 0.9 on a scale from 1 to 5) more than physicians thought so (2.7 ± 1.0; P<0.001).. Control orientation correlated positively with the subordination of nurses (P<0.005) and negatively with personal integration in an organization (P