Attitudes and perceptions of nursing students toward preparation for interdisciplinary health care teams

Using a modification of the Snyder's Health Care Team Questionnaire, the author conducted a study pertaining to attitudes of undergraduate nursing students toward health care teams, and perception of curriculum content on health care teams. The study design involved a random sample of 126 associate degree programmes and 122 baccalaureate degree programmes representing 14 southern states; 588 senior nursing students responded to the questionnaire. Analysis of the data collected suggested differences in attitudes of students. In addition, the data indicated that differences did exist between programmes on specific health care team concepts taught and settings chosen for clinical experiences. Differences were also detected between programmes in perception of readiness of the students to participate as health care team members, and the number of courses taught on health care teams. Data from an Interdisciplinary Health Care Team Questionnaire were analysed using univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) with the total scale representing attitude as the dependent variable. The statistical design was a mixed model ANOVA with the type of nursing programme as the fixed factor with two levels: 'Associate Degree' and 'Baccalaureate Degree'. The School of Nursing was the random factor nested within programme type.