A research report submitted to the
Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree
of
Master of Science in Nursing
Johannesburg, 2015 / Collaboration is an interpersonal relationship among colleagues sharing the same goal, power, authority and decision making (Dougherty & Larson, 2010). Collaboration is described as a marker of a nurses’ ability as well as a professional obligation. However, current clinical practice indicates that, as nurses attempt to collaborate with each other, they also employ aggressive, hostile and intimidating behaviours that may result in tension among senior and junior nurses. This carries the risk of medical errors that will lead to poor patient outcomes and job dissatisfaction.
This study sought to determine the extent and nature of collaboration practices among nurses in the intensive care settings, with an intention of making recommendations for clinical practice and education.
The setting for the study was the Intensive Care Units (ICU’s) (n=5); trauma, cardiothoracic, coronary care, general and neurosurgical units of a public sector and tertiary level hospital in Johannesburg.
A non-experimental, descriptive and quantitative study design was utilized in the study. The sample comprised of 112 (n=112) nurses working in the intensive care setting. Non-probability, convenience sampling was employed in this study. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire developed from the Nurse-Nurse Collaboration Scale, which has 35 items on a four-point Likert type scale. The instrument is divided into five subscales of problem solving, communication, coordination, shared process and professionalism. Data was analyzed using factor analysis and descriptive statistics. The data was then analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Statistical assistance was sought from the biomedical statistician at the Medical Research Council (MRC) South Africa.
Generally, in this study the results have shown that nurses have more positive perceptions and attitudes about collaboration in the Intensive Care Units, as evidenced by the frequency scores with nurses responding more positively to the five subscales even though some missing data was identified on some of the responses. However, the subscales of communication, shared process, coordination and professionalism scored higher; most of
the participants either agreed or strongly agreed to all these items compared to conflict management in item 1.1, where the majority disagreed ignoring the issue pretending it will go away. In item 1.2, the majority agreed to withdraw from conflict; similarly for item 1.5 disagreements between nurses were ignored, or avoided. Correct conflict management amongst nurses is very important for effective delivery of care and collegial working relationships; nurses’ are urged to learn the skills of resolving conflict amicably by compromising in order to consider the interests of all parties. These results showed that females dominate the nursing profession with males being a minority and no differences in collaboration were observed.
Participants’ responses for work experience were examined to determine if there was any impact on how nurses perceive collaboration between senior and junior nurses. However, the study results indicated there was a statistically significantly (p<0.05) difference in perceptions of collaboration practices in two of the five subscales; namely communication and shared process between junior and senior nurses in the Intensive Care units. In their responses to an open-ended question, nurses felt that some of their roles overlapped creating confusion as to who was supposed to do what and as a result, it became difficult to maintain effective collaboration amongst team members, compromising the delivery of patient care.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/19958 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Ndundu, Lonely Debra |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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