Nurse relationships and work group disruption

As nursing administrators and managers respond to healthcare reform pressures with downsizing, rightsizing, and work group reorganization, they need to pay attention to and support the nursing work group relationships. A study of 908 registered nurses (RNs) in a variety of nursing work environments in four hospitals indicates that interpersonal relationships are an important part of job satisfaction, that there is a relationship between some types of work group disruption and RN satisfaction with interpersonal relationships, and that there is a relationship between work group disruption and RN perceptions of patient safety/quality of care.