This investigation addresses itself to the mutual responsibilities of consumers, nurses and physicians not only for bringing about the active participation of consumers in their own health care but for creating more effective health relationships. These responsiblities and their associated behaviors are the foundations for a collaborative model of care. The project seeks to accomplish the following research objectives: 1) to demonstrate that dialogue sessions among consumers, nurses and physicians will result in the definition of collaborative behaviors that are mutually agreed upon, qualitatively distinct and measurable; and 2) to assess the degree to which there is an increase in role conceptions associated with collaboration for the nurses, consumers and physicians who participate in these dialogue sessions. Methods being used include content analysis of dialogue forums among nurses, physicians and consumers as well as analysis of test battery and survey data. The impact of dialogue sessions is being measured for changes in the following: a) a participant's attitudes toward use of collaboration as a decision-making mode in health care; b) a participant's attitudes toward his own and others' responsibility for health; and c) the status of mutual role expectations among nurses, physicians and consumers. The results of this research will yield both a profile of the collaborative individual and a practical model for collaboration in health care. Such a model will identify barriers in health relationships and strategies to achieve more effective health relationships, specifically with the goal of shared responsibilities among nurses, physicians and consumers.