I'm responding to "Nurse/Physician Relationships: Improving or Not?" (January 2007). After over 30 years working at every level of nursing practice, I've found that the one outstanding variable in failed nurse/physician relationships is the tendency for nurses to accept subservient roles.

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One glaring example: Nurses say "doctor's orders." Do you ever see that term on pharmacists' documents? No indeed. They wisely insist on the word "prescriptions." "Orders" is an onerous term that connotes master/slave relationships. It should be replaced with a phrase such as "prescriptions for care." In many other instances, nurses accept the unacceptable with neither comment nor complaint. But for now, it would suffice if this one change were made.

LAURAINE A. THOMAS, RN, MS, PhD

Vancouver, Wash.