Challenges and best practices for moving forward in interprofessional collaboration in critical care units: nurses’ perspectives
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Background
The positive outcomes for critically ill patients rely on effective interprofessional collaboration (IPC), which depends on the collective expertise and skill of the critical care team (CCT) working cohesively and collaboratively to provide patients with high-quality, safe care.
Aims
(1) To determine the challenges to interprofessional collaboration in critical care units as perceived by the diploma versus. baccalaureate nurses (2) To explore best practices suggested by nurses for improving IPC.
Methods
A descriptive design using a four-point scale survey and two open-ended questions was employed to collect the data from 125 nurses in three critical care medicine units at a university hospital. Quantitative data were analyzed using t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson correlations, with 𝑝 < 0.05 considered statistically significant. Open-ended questions were analyzed by content analysis.
Results
The results demonstrated a substantial difference between nurses who graduated from nursing faculties and hold baccalaureate degrees and nurses who graduated from nursing institutions and hold diploma degrees in agreement and satisfaction with the relations and collaboration with the physicians. Additionally, a significant correlation was seen between the level of nurses’ education and the limited time caused by heavy workloads and the nurses’ perspectives toward their relations with physicians. A content analysis of the nurses’ texts revealed that five categories have emerged as nurses’ suggestions to keep up the best practices for moving forward in the nurse-physician collaboration: changing the physician’s attitude toward the nurses, improving communication skills, role clarification, interprofessional conflict resolution, and support and motivation.
Conclusions
On the one hand, nurses with baccalaureate degrees expressed lower satisfaction with IPC. On the other hand, five categories were suggested by the nurses as best practices for moving forward in their collaboration with the physicians, these include physician attitudes toward the nurses, communication tools and skills, nurses’ roles clarification, interprofessional conflict resolution, and support and motivation. Implementation of the results of the current study will improve patient outcomes by preventing oversights, medication errors, and redundant interventions. In addition to creating relaxed working conditions, improving the morale of the healthcare team, job satisfaction, and decreased staff turnover.
