Nurse practitioners' experiences of working collaboratively with general practitioners and allied health professionals in New South Wales, Australia

Objective: The study aimed to explore contemporary collaborative experiences of nurse practitioners (NPs) in providing care with general practitioners (GPs) and allied health care professionals.

Design: A qualitative descriptive, exploratory design was considered the most appropriate to achieve the study objectives. This allowed the researcher at first hand to gain a thorough understanding of the nurse participants' experiences.

Setting: The study was conducted in urban, rural and remote clinics and hospitals throughout New South Wales, Australia, where the NPs were authorised to care for the community. Participants: Nine authorised NPs were the key participants in the study. Results: Analysis identified one main theme of Collaboration and three sub themes that were named as Total Collaboration, Partial Collaboration and Non Collaboration.

Conclusion: In this study, most NPs reported dissatisfaction from working in ineffective collaborative relationships with medical and allied health care professionals. Total collaboration did not automatically occur and was identified as the exception. Sustainable collaborative partnerships should be developed with all heath care providers by acknowledging each others unique, valuable contribution. Despite this challenging and complex situation, NSW NPs remained determined to provide advanced nursing care for patients and to establish and maintain effective collaboration with all health care professionals.

© Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, 2005.