The article on "Nurse/Physician Relationships: Improving or Not?" (January 2007)* was very interesting. The nursing profession has a better understanding of the practice of medicine than the medical profession has of nursing. It's not about what nurses do to help physicians, it's about what nurses do for patients to help them regain or maintain their health.

We've babied doctors and they've bullied nurses for too long. Physicians need to be taught about nursing and the nursing process by nurses while they're in medical school, so they're prepared to enter into this unique partnership meant to bring people into health. It's the patient who suffers when the partnership of nursing and medicine operates on a dysfunctional level.

-JANET Y. MULDOON, RN, PHN, MSN

Red Lake Falls, Minn.

^*Individual subscribers can access all articles free online at http://www.nursing2007.com. [Context Link]