Collaborative Networks in Critical Care Nursing Teams: Based on Social Network Analysis and Multiple Regression...

Area of Science:

• Nursing Science
• Healthcare Management
• Organizational Behavior

Background:

• Effective intensive care unit (ICU) nurse collaboration is vital for patient safety.
• Traditional analyses often overlook relational dependencies in teamwork.

Purpose of the Study:

• Delineate task-specific collaboration structures in ICUs.
• Identify pair-level determinants of nurse collaboration using network-aware methodologies.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study in a tertiary ICU with 96 registered nurses.
• Collaboration defined as coparticipation in clinical events across four task types.
• Network analysis and MRQAP (Stochastic Actor-Oriented Model) used to analyze collaboration determinants.

Main Results:

• Distinct collaboration topologies observed: compact clustering in emergent care, hub-and-spoke in procedural care.
• Work assignment proximity was the strongest predictor of collaboration (β=0.314, p<0.001).
• Psychological safety similarity (β=0.176, p=0.004) and competency complementarity (β=0.142, p=0.021) also significantly predicted collaboration.

Conclusions:

• ICU nurse collaboration is multidimensional and task-dependent.
• Managerial strategies should focus on optimizing spatial proximity through roster design.
• Fostering psychological safety and developing complementary competencies are crucial for enhancing team resilience and care quality.