Strategies to Overcome Barriers to Effective Nurse Practitioner and Physician Collaboration

Nurse practitioners (NPs) and physicians have worked together to manage patients since the inception of the NP role in the 1960s.1 Because the underserved and rural areas lacked primary and specialty care physicians, the NP role eventually evolved to one of a collaborating midlevel provider.2 The integrated use of NPs and physicians together has positively affected the health care system, yet barriers to effective collaboration continue to exist, and this may lead to a reduced level of quality health care for patients. The barriers to effective collaboration between NPs and physicians are important to consider because the main goals of any NP–physician collaborative team are positive patient care outcomes.