The Status of Nurse-Nurse Collaboration from the Perspective of Nurses and its Relationship with Working Environment Conditions in Educational Hospitals affiliated to Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, 2018

Abstract

Abstract: Aim: Nurses make up the largest number of health care providers and they are at the forefront of treatment and are in greater contact with patients. The majority of literature has paid the most attention to inter professional collaboration and little is known about factors that influence on intra professional collaboration among nurses. This study aimed to assess nurses’ perception of nurse-nurse collaboration and its relationship with their working environment. Methods: This multicenter cross-sectional study carried out on 300 nurses working in four teaching (Emam Reza, Shahid Madani, Sina, and Shohada) hospitals in Tabriz. Data collection was performed from December 2018 to April 2019. Participants were selected using stratified sampling. The data collection tool consists of three parts including Demographic data, Nurse-Nurse Collaboration Scale (NNCS), and Nurses working index. The data were analyzed by the SPSS software (ver.21) using independent t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: The mean of nurse-nurse collaboration was 2.94±0.21 out of 4. The highest score obtained in the nurse-nurse cooperation questionnaire was related to the field of professionalism and the lowest score was related to the two domains of conflict management and participatory process. The mean score of the Nurses' working index was 2.65± 0.32). The highest score obtained in this questionnaire was related to the domain of principles of nursing care quality and the lowest score was related to the domain of organization and resource adequacy. Based on the results of the study, there was a positive and significant relationship between nursing work environment and nurse-nurse cooperation (r =0/491, P <0.05). Conclusions: Nurses need to promote their skills in some attributes of collaboration such as conflict management. Policymakers and nurse managers should focus more attention on collaboration and try to foster effective collaboration among nurses. Given that the working environment of nurses affects the quality of their collaboration, improving the working environment of nurses and providing a healthy work environment can facilitate the more cooperation between nurses.