Nurse/physician collaboration: a cost/quality issue for the nurse manager.

Excellence in nurse-physician relationships is possible and feasible, beginning and ending with the nurse manager setting the climate and culture that fosters mutual respect. As Leah Curtin (1982, p. 8) states, "We may be irritants, but we are not adversaries: Physicians know that patients need good nursing care and nurses know that patients need good medical care. Generally speaking, neither is possible in the absence of the other."