Exploring the Relationship Between Nurses' Perceptions of Teamwork and Caring Behaviors: A Multicenter...

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Healthcare Management
• Organizational Psychology

Background:

• Teamwork is crucial for high-quality nursing care, yet research on its impact on nurses' caring behaviors is limited, especially in developing nations.
• Existing literature lacks comprehensive data on the interplay between teamwork perceptions and actual caring behaviors among nurses in diverse healthcare settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between nurses' perceptions of teamwork and their caring behaviors.
• To identify specific components of teamwork that influence caring behaviors in hospital settings.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study involving 401 nurses from four public and private hospitals in Tabriz, Iran, using simple random stratified sampling.
• Data collection via questionnaires on demographics, teamwork attitudes, and caring behaviors (Caring Behavior Inventory - CBI-24).
• Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and regression analyses (SPSS-26).

Main Results:

• Nurses reported acceptable levels of both teamwork (3.64 ± 0.62) and caring behaviors (5.10 ± 0.74).
• A significant positive correlation (r=0.555, p<0.01) was found between teamwork and caring behaviors.
• Team structure (β=0.129), mutual support (β=0.250), and communication (β=0.304) significantly predicted 35.6% of the variance in caring behaviors.

Conclusions:

• Enhancing nursing teamwork, particularly team structure, mutual support, and communication, is an effective strategy to promote nurses' caring behaviors.
• Strengthening nursing teamwork should be a priority for clinical nurse leaders, managers, and educators to improve patient care quality.
• Interventions aimed at improving teamwork can lead to more compassionate and effective nursing care.