ABSTRACT
The previous chapter has explored the contextual issues that have influenced medical and nursing roles.This chapter has, as its focus, how doctors and nurses work together in the clinical environment.Review of the literature demonstrates that much has been written on the nature of working relationships between doctors and nurses. In this section, I will critically review the concepts that most frequently arise in literature relating to doctor-nurse relationships.The terms used to describe clinical team functioning are explored, together with the specific concept of collaboration.As the review will demonstrate, over time there have been subtle changes in the definitions used to describe team working. I suggest that these reflect the historical socialisation and contemporary dynamics of health care teams.Such definitions and developments, therefore,need to be understood cognisant of the health care context at that time.
