Nursing teamwork and time to respond to call lights: an exploratory study

Abstract

AIM: The aim of this exploratory study was to determine whether the level of nursing teamwork is correlated to call light answering time in acute care hospital patient care units. Background: Teamwork has been shown to improve productivity. In this study, we examine the relationship between unit call light response time as a measure of productivity and the level of teamwork on the unit. METHOD: The Nursing Teamwork Survey was administered to nursing staff on 18 inpatient units in 3 hospitals. In addition to the overall teamwork score, the NTS has 5 subscales. Call light response times were collected from electronic systems which measures the time it takes for nursing staff on a given unit to respond to patient call lights. RESULTS: There was no significant relationship between call light response time and teamwork overall or on the five subscales. Shared mental models, which comprise the conceptual understanding of the roles and responsibilities of each team member, however was moderately correlated with call-light answering times. CONCLUSIONS: It is logical that shared mental models would be associated with call light response time since a common problem in patient units is the "it's not my job syndrome" where nursing staff do not answer call lights for patients assigned to someone else. More research with a larger number of patient units is needed to validate these findings.

Nursing staff’s evaluation of facilitators and barriers during implementation of wireless nurse call systems in residential care facilities. A cross-sectional study.

“…This indicated that the ethical implications of the WNCS' design and functions corresponded well with moral values of the care providers, as found by Detweiler and Hindriks (14) and Ienca, Wangmo, Jotterand, Kressig, and Elger (54). Strong leadership combined with shared mental models among nursing staff have previously been found to be associated with prompt response to calls in hospital settings (4,55), as well as in a geriatric evaluation facility (56). Cappelen, Harris, Storm and Aase (57) found engaged nursing managers to be role models for promoting improvements to patient safety in Norwegian nursing homes.…”

Evaluating a smartwatch notification system in a simulated nursing home

“…Furthermore, an increased frequency of calls is directly correlated to a decreased number of injuries due to patient falls (Tzeng, 2011a). Surprisingly little research, however, has examined how call light systems are actually being used, such as how nurses respond to call light systems and how patients use it (Galinato, Montie, Patak, & Titler, 2015;Kalisch, Labelle, & Boqin, 2013).…”

Nursing staff’s evaluation of facilitators and barriers during implementation of wireless nurse call systems in residential care facilities. A cross-sectional study

“…* 1; totally agree, 2; agree, 3; neither agree nor disagree, 4; disagree, 5; totally disagree.~1; most definitely not, 2; definitely not, 3; perhaps, perhaps not, 4; definitely, 5; most definitely of the care providers, as found by Detweiler and Hindriks [14] and Ienca, Wangmo, Jotterand, Kressig, and Elger [53]. Strong leadership combined with shared mental models among nursing staff have previously been found to be associated with prompt response to calls in hospital settings [4,54], as well as in a geriatric evaluation facility [55]. Cappelen, Harris, Storm and Aase [56] found engaged nursing managers to be role models for promoting improvements to patient safety in Norwegian nursing homes.…”

“…The importance of implementing a multifunctional NCS that addresses the users' needs and supports effective communication between patients, healthcare providers and management, is emphasized [2]. Research on NCS has predominately been hospital-based and has primarily reflected the major driving forces of technical development, namely to enhance patient safety through reduced call response time and to eliminate alarm fatigue among healthcare providers [2][3][4][5]. In the residential care sector, research on alarm fatigue and corresponding patient safety issues has been related to monitoring systems [6][7][8][9].…”