Interns’ Viewpoints about Nurses’ Capability and Behavior towards Patients and Interns

Introduction. Taking care of patients is a team work and in each team work the members’ performance has a direct impact on their relationship and efforts in achieving their common goal. It is necessary that medical interns as a member of health care team pay attention to the health care services provided by nurses. The purpose of this study was to determine the viewpoints of interns about nurses’ capabilities and behavior with patients and interns in teaching hospitals of Isfahan Medical University. Methods. In this descriptive study, 157 interns working in educational hospitals affiliated to Isfahan Medical University were selected by stratified random sampling method. The data collection tool was a Likert type valid and reliable questionnaire consisted of 25 questions about nurses’ performance towards patients and interns, and interns’ performance towards patients. The mean, standard deviation, t-test and spearman were used for data analysis by SPSS software. Results. The mean score of interns’ view about nurses’ performance was 3.06 out of 5. This score was 2.99 for professional skills of nurses, 3.12 regarding the nurses’ behavior towards patients and 3.14 for the nurses’ behavior towards interns. The score earned from interns’ viewpoint about their own performance towards patients was 3.32. The mean number of improper contacts between interns and nurses reported by interns in previous 5 days was 0.3. Conclusion. The overall score of interns’ view towards nurses’ performance was at an intermediate level which could be because of different reasons such as their undefined responsibilities towards nurses and patients. It is obvious that this defect could have a negative impact on patient management and team work. Therefore it is necessary to consider “the way of communicating with nurses” in the learning objectives and educational content of interns.