Factors Affecting Team Collaboration among Ward Nurses: A Prospective Cohort Survey

Background: Since interdisciplinary health care has become more popular, a better knowledge of its efficacy and factors predicting collaboration is required. Objective: This study aims to identify factors affecting ward nurse team collaboration.Design: A prospective cohort study.Setting: Hospital-based study of ward nurses.Participants: This survey was conducted among ward nurses working in university and public hospitals in the Kanto region of Japan.Methods: Nurses were enrolled from six facilities drawn from the thirty-two university and public hospitals with 400 or more beds in the Kanto region of Japan in 2018, with a follow-up survey conducted six months after baseline data collection. A validated structured ward nurse team collaboration research tool with a Cronbach’s α of 0.88 was used to assess the willingness to communicate among nurses. Questions on personal factors, work environment factors, assertiveness, resilience, and work-life balance were also included in the questionnaire. Hospital ward nurse team collaboration was assessed six months later. Multiple regression analysis was performed for participants with complete baseline and follow-up data.Results: The baseline survey was sent to 3,303 ward nurses, of which 2486 responses were obtained. However, this study included 840 participants (74 males and 766 females) with complete, valid baseline and follow-up data. Participants’ mean ward nurse team collaboration score was 70.5±8.5 (range; 36-102). Nurses with higher team collaboration scores were those more independent in performing duties (β=0.187, p=0.001), had opportunities to engage their abilities (β=0.122, p=0.001), and felt that some persons created a positive atmosphere in the ward (β=0.094, p=0.01). The coefficient of determination adjusted for degrees of freedom (R2) was 0.227, depicting a 22% variance.Conclusions: These findings suggest that improving team collaboration among ward nurses requires that each has a sense of purpose, independence, and opportunities to engage their abilities.