The Physician and the Nurse — Their Interprofessional Work in Office and Hospital Ambulatory Settings

THERE are not enough doctors now nor will there be enough in the future, according to present standards, to care for the health needs of the country. One obvious way to make the most of the physician's unique skills is to transfer some of his less demanding functions to other professionally trained people.1 This delegation of clinical work or "Task Allocation" is already widespread in the hospital, but only recently has purposeful consideration been given to the ways in which nurses can promote better care of the ambulatory patient by assuming a new role. The effectiveness of a planned program . . .