Nursing teamwork in a health system: A multisite study

The aim of this study was to examine how the facets of teamwork exist among nurse-only teams in acute and continuing care settings.

The health care 'team' conventionally describes the interdisciplinary team in both literature and practice. Nursing-specific teams are rarely considered in the literature. An examination of this specific professional cohort is important to understand how teamwork exists among those who provide the majority of patient care.

This was a descriptive, comparative, cross-sectional study using the Nursing Teamwork Survey to measure teamwork of nursing-based teams among 1414 participants in multiple acute care environments across a large Midwestern health system.

The characteristics of nursing teams were analysed. The results from the subscales within the teamwork model showed that nursing teams had a good understanding of the various roles and responsibilities. However, nurse team members held a more individualistic rather than collective team-oriented mindset.

Increased teamwork has a positive effect on job satisfaction, staffing efficiencies, retention and care delivery. Nurse leaders can use the information provided in this study to target the aspects of highly functioning teams by improving team orientation, trust and backup behaviours.