There are of course many reasons that patients are injured while in the care of medical professionals not only in Pennsylvania, but throughout the country as well. As is the case in virtually any situation where accidents occur, many of the medical malpractice lawsuits that are filed could likely be avoided through better communication between health care providers. This is supported by a study that was published last summer in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Two types of health care workers who often interact while caring for a patient are doctors and nurses. Perhaps not surprisingly, there are issues regarding how those interactions go. According to the vice president of patient care and chief nursing officer for Ohio's Mercy St. Anne Hospital, this difference is in part due to the different ways the two groups convey information.

She asserts that in many cases, nurses provide more details to doctors than they believe necessary. In the doctor's attempt to get only the information they feel is relevant, they sometimes appear to be rude to the nurses. Interestingly, in many of these cases, the doctor does not believe his or her behavior is disrespectful.

The question then, is what to do to remedy the problem. A survey indicates that both nurse leaders and physician leaders appear to think that expanding the scope of a nurse's practice would lead to higher quality care of patients. The expanded scope would presumable reduce the amount of communication taking place between the two types of health care providers.

Another solution that appears to work, in pediatric medicine anyway, is the creation of small teams of doctors and nurses. Whether this would work in other medical specialties remains to be seen.

Source: Fierce Health Care, "Docs, nurses miscommunicate on respect, job role," Alicia Caramenico, Feb. 13, 2012