Nurse physician communication--discourse analysis.

Communication in any form is an integral part of daily life and within the realm of health care can mean the difference between life and death. A vital partnership exists between health care professionals and patients that can be either negatively or positively affected by interprofessional communication. Of particular importance, and the focus of much attention over the years, is the communication between physicians and nurses. The discourse regarding this communication within acute care settings is presented and analyzed in this article following principles of critical discourse analysis (CDA) to determine the way the topic is discussed and understood in society and how this plays a role in the reproduction of the dominance of nurses by physicians.