Enhancing team learning in nursing teams through beliefs about interpersonal context

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Organizational Psychology
• Nursing Research

Background:

• Growing interest in team learning processes and their impact on performance.
• Research has explored team learning and its enablers, but nursing teams remain understudied.
• Understanding team dynamics is crucial for improving healthcare delivery.

Purpose of the Study:

• Examine the relationship between team-level learning and performance in nursing teams.
• Investigate the role of interpersonal context beliefs in this relationship.
• Identify factors influencing nursing team effectiveness.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional field survey design.
• Data collected from 468 healthcare professionals across 89 nursing teams in Spanish public hospitals.
• Confidential questionnaires and supervisor evaluations of team performance.

Main Results:

• Team learning significantly mediates the relationship between interpersonal context beliefs and team performance.
• Positive beliefs about the interpersonal context (psychological safety, perceived task interdependence, group potency) enhance team learning.
• Effective team learning is crucial for translating positive interpersonal beliefs into improved team performance.

Conclusions:

• Beliefs about the interpersonal context are vital for effective nursing team performance.
• Team learning acts as a critical mediator, linking interpersonal context to performance outcomes.
• Interventions fostering psychological safety and interdependence can improve nursing team effectiveness.