Objective: The study was aimed to exhibit the perceptions of physicians and nurses both about their own profession and the other profession comparatively using metaphorical method.

Material and Method: In the study, metaphor analysis, one of the qualitative research methods, was used. In order to obtain the most variety with a small sample, maximum variety sampling method was used. A form which consists of four demografic questions and a final question which will allow them to indicate sentences as “Physician/nurse is like ……….… Because…….” was distributed to 200

participants in order to put forth metaphors which will represent their perceptions both about their own profession and the other profession. Feedback was obtained from a total of 191 participants between December 2017 and March 2018 including 88 physicians, 102 nurses and 1 unstated form who volunteered in the city of Konya from community clinics, state hospitals or private hospitals.


Results: Data was sorted and among the semi-structured data suitable for analysis, physicians (n=80) and nurses (n=85) were divided into four groups. Each of these groups were examined separately. The number of produced metaphors are 75 in 8 categories in Physician-Physician (P-P) group, 69 in 7 categories in Physician-Nurse (P-N) group, 68 in 8 categories in Nurse-Physician (N-P) group and 72 in 6 categories in Nurse-Nurse (N-N) group.

Conclusion: These metaphors (P-P wisdom, diligence, durable, worthless, essential, altruistic, usefulness, P-N= diligence, worthless, P-N conflict, P-N cooperation, discipline, essential, altruism, N-P= wisdom, authority, N-P conflict, N-P cooperation, leadership, essential, durable, healing, N-N= diligence, worthless, discipline, essential, altruism, N-P cooperation) can be used as a guideline for organizing the working conditions of the two groups, which are essential to work together, to provide a more professional infrastructure for the professional relations and for the educational activities to be carried out for this purpose.

Professional perception Metaphor Physician Nurse