Nurse‐to‐nurse collaboration between nurses caring for older people in hospital and primary health care: A cross‐sectional study

Abstract

Aims and objectives To assess the level of nurse‐to‐nurse collaboration during the transfer of older people between hospital and primary health care and to evaluate the psychometric properties of the newly developed Nurse‐to‐Nurse Collaboration Between Sectors Instrument. Background Nurse‐to‐nurse collaboration is required when older people transfer between hospital and primary health care to enhance the safety and continuity of care to patients. There is a lack of evidence about the nature and level of this collaboration. Design A cross‐sectional survey design was used. This study adhered to the STROBE checklist. Methods A sample of 443 nurses (university hospital n = 240, primary health care n = 203) participated in the study from October 2017 to June 2018. Nurses completed the Nurse‐to‐Nurse Collaboration Between Sectors Instrument (86 items, 7–point Likert‐type scale), the Nurse‐Nurse Collaboration Scale and the Patient‐Centred Competency Scale. Results Nurses rated the overall level of nurse‐to‐nurse collaboration moderately high (mean=4.49, standard deviation=0.83, maximum 7.00). Nurses considered collaboration an important and confidential process, gaining older people's trust in their care. Lower scores were given to the agreement of mutual objectives, policies and guidelines in collaboration, opportunities for job rotation and interacting and networking during the collaboration process. The internal consistency reliability of the newly developed instrument was acceptable. Conclusions Nurses collaborate with competence and confidentiality during the transfer of older people between care settings. However, there is a need for more opportunities to collaborate, to obtain mutual agreement about objectives, policies and practices, and better understand other nurse's roles and responsibilities in collaboration. The reliability and validity of the Nurse‐to‐Nurse Collaboration Between Sectors Instrument were acceptable though the number and wording of items will be reviewed and further tested. Relevance to clinical practice Nurses need opportunities to collaborate, and there is a need to develop agreed objectives, practices, roles and responsibilities in this collaboration.

The Association of Work Environments and Nurse-Nurse Collaboration: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study

“…It seems that this difference could be related to the context of the study in which some organizational and personal factors are different in the context of our hospitals compared with those studied in Turkey. As argued by Lemetti et al (2021), nurses from different organizations could have different opinions on nurses' collaboration.…”

“…The participants highlighted the significance of effective relationship, teamwork, and collaboration in improving the healthy workplace in the health care settings. As argued by Lemetti et al (2021) effective collaboration between nurses require support from the organizations and managers with a greater respect on mutually arranged guidelines, objectives, and policies. In a recent study by Mohammadzadeh et al (2021), it was found that providing a healthy working environment could affect the nurses' outcomes such as their career success.…”

“…In this regard, healthcare systems support the intraprofessional collaboration of nurses and collaboration of nurses with other health care professionals (interprofessional collaboration). These collaborations and team work could increase patients' safety, reduce nurses' burnout, and finally improve the quality of patient care (Pakpour et al, 2019;Lemetti et al, 2021). It has been found that building an environment that encourages nurses' collaboration can significantly influence nurses' performance (Al-Hamdan et al, 2021).…”

The relationship between nurse–nurse collaboration and work readiness among new graduate nurses

“…As defined in Oxford English Online Dictionary, collaboration means the action of working with someone to produce something 16 . Collaboration in nursing is an effective teamwork component in which a group of nurses competently interact and work together to achieve common goals 17 . Nurse–nurse collaboration has been defined as an interpersonal relationship that requires a high level of communication, coordination, conflict management strategies, shared process, and professionalism 18 .…”

“…16 Collaboration in nursing is an effective teamwork component in which a group of nurses competently interact and work together to achieve common goals. 17 Nurse-nurse collaboration has been defined as an interpersonal relationship that requires a high level of communication, coordination, conflict management strategies, shared process, and professionalism. 18 Good nurse-nurse collaboration has been linked to higher job satisfaction, 19,20 lower turnover intention, 20 better quality of care, [20][21][22] and better nursing performance.…”