The role of gender, profession and informational role self-efficacy in physician–nurse knowledge sharing and decision-making

While gender and professional status influence how decisions are made, the role played by health care professionals' informational role self-efficacy appears as a central construct fostering participation in decision-making. The goal of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of how gender and profession affect the role of self-efficacy in sharing expertise and decision-making. Validated questionnaires were answered by a cross-sectional sample of 108 physicians and nurses working in mental health care teams. A moderated mediation analysis was performed. Results reveal that the impact of sharing knowledge on informational role self-efficacy is negative for nurses. Being a nurse negatively affects the relation between informational role self-efficacy and participating in decision-making. Informational role self-efficacy is also a strong positive predictor of participation in decision-making for male physicians but less so for female physicians.