Team Functioning And Beliefs About Team Effectiveness In Inter-Professional Teams: Questionnaire Development And...

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Team Dynamics
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Validated instruments for measuring team functioning in acute and primary care are scarce.
• Healthcare team effectiveness is crucial for quality patient care.
• Existing measures may not adequately capture provider perceptions of team dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and psychometrically assess a questionnaire measuring healthcare provider perceptions of team effectiveness (Provider-PTE).
• To provide a reliable and valid instrument for evaluating team functioning in diverse healthcare settings.

Main Methods:

• Item generation based on empirical evidence and a conceptual model.
• Development of a 41-item self-completed questionnaire.
• Cross-sectional survey of 283 healthcare providers across various settings.
• Assessment of reliability (Cronbach alpha), validity (face, content, construct), and responsiveness.

Main Results:

• The Provider-PTE questionnaire demonstrated good reliability (Cronbach alpha ranging from 0.72 to 0.91).
• Significant differences in team functioning perceptions were found based on professional group, tenure, and presence of nurse practitioners.
• The instrument showed responsiveness, differentiating between high and low functioning teams (p<0.001).

Conclusions:

• The study provides evidence for the validity of the English and French Provider-PTE questionnaires.
• The revised 43-item instrument is a validated tool for measuring team functioning across settings.
• This questionnaire contributes to a better understanding and improvement of healthcare team dynamics.