Background Intraprofessional collaboration necessitates understanding and knowledge on how nurses perceive each other and what factors promote good collaboration. The relationship between nurse–nurse collaboration has been explored relatively little, though intraprofessional collaboration is an essential factor for a healthy work environment. Aim This study explores the Finnish and the Norwegian nurses’ perceptions of nurse–nurse collaboration in nursing care and factors associated with those perceptions. Design A cross‐sectional quantitative study design. Methods In 2015, data were collected from 406 Finnish and Norwegian RNs in two acute‐care hospitals, by employing the Dougherty and Larson's Nurse‐Nurse Collaboration Scale (NNCS). Descriptive statistics, cross‐tabulations, Pearson's chi‐Square tests and multivariate anova were used for analysis. Ethical approval for this study was obtained from ethics committees in both countries. Results Findings indicated that the perception of nurse–nurse collaboration was good in both countries. However, significant inter‐country differences were found in the collaboration subscales. Compared with their Finnish counterparts, Norwegian nurses awarded higher scores to conflict management, communication, shared process, coordination and professionalism. The results suggest that nurse characteristics, such as main working time and total work experience, were related to the perception of collaboration. Conclusion The subscales with the highest scores in both countries were professionalism, shared process and communication. Factors such as conflict management and coordination are areas which should be emphasised to achieve good collaboration between nurses. Here, nurse leaders play an important part in assessing and improving RN‐RN collaboration.

Aims To explore the relationship between nurse – nurse collaboration and job satisfaction among hospital nurses and to test and refine a model explaining this relationship. Design A secondary analysis of a cross ‐ sectional survey. Methods Registered nurses ( N = 406, female 88%) in one university hospital in Finland and one in Norway completed a self ‐ administered questionnaire in 2015. Structural equation modelling analysis was used to analyse the relationships between collaboration and job satisfaction subscales. Results The constructed SEM model fit the data well (RMSEA = 0.05, CFI = 0.985, χ 2 p ‐value > 0.1). The model strongly supported the hypothesized covariance between nurse – nurse collaboration and job satisfaction, while significant and positive relationships were observed between most of the subscales. The results suggest that there is a strong association between nurse – nurse collaboration and job satisfaction such that nurses are more satisfied when there is good collaboration and vice versa.

Nurse leaders should be aware of registered nurses' diverse backgrounds and use this knowledge to recognize registered nurses in need of support. The paths through which registered nurses participate in decision-making should be streamlined and workloads should be regularly assessed so that work is distributed evenly.