Abstract
Introduction
Teamwork is identified as a key contributor to patient safety and good teamwork is recognized as one of the presumptions of healthy work environment in nursing. The importance of job satisfaction in nursing has repeatedly been confirmed, but only recently has the association of job satisfaction and nursing teamwork been identified.
Objective
To identify the level of nursing teamwork in hospitals in Iceland and its relationship with job satisfaction.
Methods
This was a quantitative descriptive cross-sectional study. Data were collected with the
Results
A logistic regression analysis indicated that work experience on current unit and perceived staffing adequacy contributes to job satisfaction and when controlling for unit type, role, experience on current unit and staffing adequacy, those reporting better teamwork are significantly more likely to be satisfied with their current position. With an additional unit for overall nursing teamwork, participants are almost five times likelier to be satisfied with their current position.
Conclusion
Study findings show that there is a significant relationship between nursing teamwork and job satisfaction. The findings of this study confirm the importance of adequate staffing and good teamwork for nurses’ job satisfaction. Staffing however, will remain the most challenging part of the equation as lack of nursing staff is foreseen globally in the coming decades turning the spotlight to teamwork. All stakeholders, including clinical nurse leaders, administrators, and instructors, need to emphasize on strengthening nursing teamwork. Good teamwork with increased job satisfaction may prevent turnover and shortage of nurses, an issue expected to grow during and following the COVID-19 pandemic. Facilitating good teamwork should be one of the priorities of every nurse leader.
Introduction
The modern health care delivery system is complex and rapidly changing and it is therefore important for nursing staff to work together to secure patient safety (Jomaa et al., 2021) and quality of care (Kalisch et al., 2007; Zeleníková et al., 2020). Teamwork and team-based care are identified as key contributors to patient safety and quality patient care (Mitchell et al., 2012; WHO, 2016). Good teamwork is also recognized as one of the presumptions for a healthy work environment in nursing as it supports optimal nurse and patient outcomes (Aiken et al., 2013; Elbejjani et al., 2020; Kirwan et al., 2013; Lu et al., 2019). In a healthy work environment, staffing is appropriate, nurses can practice to their full potential and job satisfaction is high (Kirwan et al., 2013; Kutney-Lee et al., 2013; Zeleníková et al., 2020). Teamwork and job satisfaction are significant contributors to patient and staff safety. Effective teamwork has been linked with higher job satisfaction and job satisfaction has been reported to have a strong positive association with nurses’ intent to leave work and turnover (Kalisch et al., 2010). The importance of job satisfaction in nursing has repeatedly been confirmed and its effect on turnover, but only a few studies have identified the association of job satisfaction and nursing teamwork (Goh et al., 2020; Kalisch et al., 2010; Rafferty et al., 2001).
Few studies are published on the influence of teamwork on job satisfaction, indicating a need for the matter. The purpose of this study was to identify the level of nursing teamwork in hospitals in Iceland and its relationship with job satisfaction.
Review of Literature
The importance of teamwork in health care has received substantial attention in recent years as has the importance of job satisfaction in nursing. Teamwork is recognized as being a complex social activity where a group of people work together to achieve a task or goal (Sargeant et al., 2008). Teamwork has always been important in nursing because it is vital for nursing staff to work together to be able to fulfill the goals of patient care needs, although often unrecognized (Leonard et al., 2004). Study findings show the importance of nursing teamwork in the achievement of collaboration and communication (Al Sayah et al., 2014; Kalisch et al., 2007) as well as its association with workload and work-related stress (Kalisch & Lee, 2011), staffing adequacy (Bragadóttir et al., 2019; Goh et al., 2020; Jomaa et al., 2021), nurses health outcomes (Elbejjani et al., 2020), job satisfaction and intent to leave (Abualrub et al., 2012; Gebregziabher et al., 2020; Goh et al., 2020; Kalisch et al., 2010; Rafferty et al., 2001). Internationally, study results indicate that good teamwork may prevent turnover and shortage of nurses and staff (Abualrub et al., 2012; Al Sabei et al., 2022; Estryn-Behar et al., 2007).
Job satisfaction seems to differ significantly between countries (Burmeister et al., 2019; Sanner-Stiehr et al., 2021). In Iceland, nurses’ job satisfaction is known to be high (Burmeister et al., 2019; Gunnarsdóttir et al., 2009), and indications are that number of variables contribute to nurses’ job satisfaction, not least job stress and support from nurse unit managers (NUMs) (Flygenring & Sveinsdóttir, 2014), but the extent to which teamwork contributes to job satisfaction of nursing staff in Iceland has not been studied previously. A previous descriptive study using the same data set, revealed a statistically significant correlation between teamwork and job satisfaction indicating more satisfaction of nursing staff with both their role and current position with better teamwork. Other studies on teamwork and job satisfaction among nursing staff in Iceland were not identified.
Job satisfaction indicates the extent to which people like or dislike their job (Spector, 1997). However, job satisfaction does not depend entirely on the nature of the job, but no less on the expectations people have about their job (Lu et al., 2012). Job satisfaction is the variable that has been studied widely in nurses’ work environment, especially because of its strong positive link to nurses’ turnover. Job satisfaction of nurses has also been found to link positively to a variety of work-related factors. Among others these factors are type of unit, the work environment of nurses, whether working overtime or not, absenteeism and length of tenure. Type of unit may contribute to job satisfaction as a cross-sectional study from the United States (US) with a sample of 53,851 nurses from 162 hospitals showed that nurses working in medical-surgical units reported significantly higher job satisfaction than those working in other type of units (Klaus et al., 2012). A recent study conducted in hospitals in the Czech Republic, with a sample of 513 nurses providing direct patient care, indicated significantly more satisfaction with role as well as profession with better practice environment and better teamwork (Zeleníková et al., 2020). Study findings indicate that nurses job satisfaction is significantly less when they work overtime (Han et al., 2015; Klaus et al., 2012) and nurses with fewer absences from work are more satisfied with their work (Burmeister et al., 2019; Roelen et al., 2013). Nurses with longer tenure are more satisfied than those with shorter tenure (Bjørk et al., 2007) and nurses’ job satisfaction correlates positively with their intention to stay in work (Gebregziabher et al., 2020; Lu et al., 2019) which is a strong predictor of nursing staff turnover (Murrells et al., 2008).
Although studies on the influence of teamwork on job satisfaction are limited in number, they show that nurses with high interprofessional teamwork scores are more satisfied with their work and intend to stay in work (Al Sabei et al., 2022; Ma et al., 2015; Rafferty et al., 2001). Also, a higher level of nursing teamwork leads to greater general job satisfaction (Goh et al., 2020) as well as greater satisfaction with role and current position (Kalisch et al., 2010; Zeleníková et al., 2020) and nurses feel more satisfied with their work when they experience high-quality communication with other team members (Trybou et al., 2015). Low scores of teamwork have been associated with increased intent to leave work among nurses (Estryn-Behar et al., 2007). In summary, indications are that nursing teamwork may contribute significantly to job satisfaction, which in turn impacts a nurse's decision whether to stay or leave current work.
Methods
Design
The study was a quantitative descriptive cross-sectional study using a paper-and-pencil questionnaire.
Research Questions
The following research questions are addressed in this study:
How do nursing staff in hospitals in Iceland evaluate the level of nursing teamwork on their unit? What are the relationships of hospital, unit and staff characteristics, and nursing teamwork and job satisfaction? To what extent do unit and staff characteristics and nursing teamwork predict job satisfaction?
Setting and Sample
All nursing staff reporting to each NUM were included in the sample including the NUMs as well as registered nurses (RNs), practical nurses (PNs), and unit secretaries. Due to the small population of Iceland, and therefore the relatively low total number of nursing staff working in hospital units meeting the inclusion criteria, all eligible nursing staff were included in the study. The inclusion criteria for participating in the study were as follows: be at least 18 years old, belong to the nursing staff on the unit, be permanently employed, provide direct patient care, spend the majority of ones working time on the unit, understand Icelandic. Temporary staff were excluded from the study. The sample consisted of the entire nursing staff (
Measures
A multiple-choice questionnaire was used for data collection including questions on background variables, questions on job satisfaction, and a question on nursing teamwork. The questionnaire used in this study is an Icelandic version of the
Hospitals were categorized into teaching hospitals with one university hospital and one teaching hospital, and other hospitals with six small regional hospitals in rural areas. Patient units were categorized into medical units (11), surgical units (8), mixed medical and surgical units (5), and ICUs (3). All mixed medical and surgical units were in the small hospitals whereas all the ICUs were in the teaching hospitals. Participants were asked about the staffing adequacy on their unit, as to how often they felt the unit staffing was adequate, where they answered 100%, 75%, 50%, 25%, or 0% of the time. The staff characteristic variables used in this study were gender, age, role (job title), number of hours worked per week, what type of shift usually worked, experience in role, experience on current unit, overtime, sick days, and intent to leave.
The
Job satisfaction was measured with two questions with a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from (1) “very dissatisfied” to (5) “very satisfied.” One question asked about the satisfaction of the participant with current position and another question asked about how satisfied the participant was in their role, that is, RN, PN, NUM, or a unit clerk/secretary, independent of their current job.
Ethical Considerations
The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board in each hospital, or analogue body in the smaller hospitals and notified to the Data Protection Authority of Iceland (S5388/2011). Participation was anonymous and participating equaled a written informed consent. The names of participants were never revealed to the researchers and the liaison persons distributed the questionnaires with an invitation letter and a response envelope, to staff members. All data were preserved in a protected space.
Data Collection Procedures
Data were collected with the help of NUMs and a liaison person in each unit. The liaison oversaw the distribution of a questionnaire with a cover letter and a return envelope to each staff member. Participants returned their completed questionnaire in a sealed envelope, by dropping it in the in-house hospital mailbox or special study drop-box located on their unit.
Data Analysis
IBM SPSS version 24.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY) was used for data analysis. The unit of analysis was the individual staff member. Data from participants who had answered at least 70% of the
A previous study revealed that the overall teamwork score and the subscales of
Frequency distribution, correlation test, and logistic regression analysis were used to answer the research questions. A chi-square test was used to calculate the differences between groups within each characteristic of hospitals, units, and participants. Where the expected frequency was low, the Yates’ chi-square test was used. An independent
Results
Sample Characteristics
Table 1 shows the characteristics of hospitals, units, and participants. Most participants worked in the teaching hospitals (78.94%), in medical units (34.87%) and surgical units (31.15%). The majority were women (98.58%), 54 years or younger (81%), RNs (57.52%) and PNs (35.58%), working rotating shifts (81.59%), 30 h or more per week (76.02%). Most of them had greater than 10 years’ experience in their current role (54.30%) and more than 5 years’ experience on their current unit (55.90%). The minority (25.77%) had not worked any overtime in the past three months. Less than half of the participants (46.44%) had been absent more than one day in the past three months. The majority (70.86%) of the participants identified the staffing on their unit adequate half or less (0%, 25%, or 50%) of the time. The vast majority had no intent to leave their current position within the next year (87.84%).
Characteristics of Hospitals, Units, and Participants (
Chi-square test.
Yates’ chi-square test.
Significant difference: *
Nursing Teamwork
Table 2 shows the mean (M) and standard deviation (SD) for the nursing teamwork scores. The mean overall teamwork score was 3.89 (SD = 0.47). The subtheme scoring highest was
Mean and Standard Deviation of Teamwork.
Relationship of Characteristics of Hospitals, Units, and Participants and Nursing Teamwork With Job Satisfaction
Table 1 shows the unit and staff characteristics that had a statistically significant correlation with job satisfaction. A statistically significant relationship was identified between perceived adequacy of staffing and intent to leave current position and both satisfaction with current position and satisfaction in role. Participants who perceived staffing on their unit adequate half or more of the time and those who had no intention of leaving their position within the next year were more satisfied with their current position as well as in their role. Also, there was a significant relationship between years of experience on current unit and satisfaction with current position. Correlational tests showed no significant relationship between hospital, unit type, gender, age, role, work hours, hours worked per week, overtime, absenteeism, or years of experience in role.
Table 3 shows the relationship of nursing teamwork with satisfaction with current position and Table 4 shows the relationship of nursing teamwork with satisfaction in role. A statistically significant relationship was identified between overall nursing teamwork as well as all the subscales of teamwork and both satisfaction with current position and satisfaction in role. An independent
The Relationship of Teamwork and Satisfaction With Current Position.
Significant difference: *
The Relationship of Teamwork and Satisfaction With Role.
Significant difference: *
The Extent to Which Unit and Staff Characteristics and Nursing Teamwork Predict Job Satisfaction
As seen in Table 5, the two models tested with logistic regression analysis show a significant contribution of experience on current unit, perceived staffing adequacy, and overall nursing teamwork to job satisfaction. The testing of Model 1 indicated a non-significant contribution of unit type and role to the variance of satisfaction with current position. However, those participants who have up to 2 years’ work experience on current unit are more than two times likelier to be satisfied than those with more than 2 years’ experience, those who perceived the staffing on their unit adequate more than half of the time are almost three times as satisfied with their current position compared to those who perceived the staffing adequate half or less of the time. Model 1 explains 8% of the variance in job satisfaction. When adding overall nursing teamwork to the model (Model 2), the logistic regression shows that when controlling for unit type, role, experience on current unit, and staffing adequacy, those reporting better teamwork are significantly more likely to be satisfied with their current position. With teamwork added to the model it explains 18% of the variance in job satisfaction. With an additional unit for overall nursing teamwork, participants are almost five times likelier to be satisfied with their current position.
Logistic Regression—Predictors of Job Satisfaction (Satisfaction With Current Position).
*
Discussion
The findings of this study show that there is a significant relationship between nursing teamwork and job satisfaction. The study reveals both strengths and potentials for improvement of nursing teamwork on inpatient units in Icelandic hospitals, where experience on the unit and staffing need to be taken into consideration. These findings clearly indicate the importance of teamwork on job satisfaction.
When compared with findings from other countries using the same questionnaire, the mean overall score of nursing teamwork in our study seems higher than is seen in other studies (Chapman et al., 2016; Goh et al., 2020; Kaiser & Westers, 2018; Kalisch & Lee, 2010). Similarities and differences are seen in the ranking of highest and lowest mean scores of subthemes, indicating some difference in work environment, systems, and culture. In our study, the ranking of subthemes of teamwork was: SMM, trust, team orientation, backup, and team leadership. In a recent study from the US, the ranking of subthemes was in the following order: SMM, team leadership, trust, backup, and team orientation (Kaiser & Westers, 2018), and in another recent study from Singapore, the ranking of subthemes was in the following order: SMM, team leadership, backup, trust, and team orientation (Goh et al., 2020). These findings may indicate cultural as well as organization and systems differences between countries. The important leadership role of NUMs for efficient nursing teamwork may be better recognized in both the US and Japan (Furkawa & Kashiwagi, 2021; Manges et al., 2016), than in Iceland. In comparison to the US, one explanation of this difference may be that in the US the TeamSTEPPS® program, providing evidence-based tools for improving teamwork among health care professionals (https://www.ahrq.gov/teamstepps/index.html), has been in place for almost two decades (King et al., 2008). This may have made a difference in the improvement of clinical team performance and helped clarify the role of nursing team leaders (Manges et al., 2016). No comparable teamwork training program is offered nationwide in Iceland.
Regarding job satisfaction, the majority of our participants were satisfied with their current position and with their role. Job satisfaction among nurses in Iceland has been measured high (Gunnarsdóttir et al., 2009), and in a recent study including data from seven countries around the world, Icelandic nurses were the most satisfied with their current position as well as with their role (Burmeister et al., 2019). A recent study including nurses from the US, Italy, and Finland, with the aim of identifying the difference in job satisfaction and multigenerational nursing characteristics between countries and generations, indicated a significant difference between nurse job satisfaction between countries and multigenerational characteristics, but not between generations (Sanner-Stiehr et al., 2021). These findings are a manifesto about how complex the phenomenon of job satisfaction is as it does not only depend on the nature of the job, but also on the expectations people have about their job (Lu et al., 2012) which again may depend on a number of different factors.
Staffing, not least nurse staffing, is one of the biggest challenges facing health care systems in the world at present and in the future (WHO, 2020). In our study staffing adequacy and teamwork contribute significantly to job satisfaction. These findings point to the importance of preventing a vicious cycle of inadequate staffing, inefficient teamwork, job dissatisfaction, and turnover (Sasso et al., 2019). Looking at the two influential variables, staffing and teamwork, it may be equally important for nursing and health care leaders to strengthen their teams through effective interventions (Buljac-Samardzic et al., 2020), as it is to secure adequate staffing (WHO, 2020).
Interestingly our findings on participants with up to 2 years’ work experience on the unit being significantly more satisfied with current position is in concordance with findings from a comparable study in Singapore (Goh et al., 2020), indicating some sort of honeymoon period in the first 2 years in nurses working life, which needs attention. These findings point to the importance of developing interventions to support the continuum of job satisfaction and retain nurses in their transition to practice (Boamah & Laschinger, 2016; Brunetto et al., 2013; Edwards et al., 2015; Laschinger et al., 2016).
The key findings of this study are that experience on current unit, perceived staffing adequacy, and nursing teamwork contribute significantly to job satisfaction of nursing staff in hospitals in Iceland. These findings are somewhat comparable to those from a study in the US (Kalisch, Lee, & Rochman, 2010) as well as a study from Singapore (Goh et al., 2020) where experience on current unit, perceived staffing adequacy, and nursing teamwork were among variables that contributed significantly to job satisfaction, showing a significant positive relationship of teamwork and job satisfaction.
Implications for Practice
The findings of this study confirm the importance of adequate staffing and good teamwork for nurses’ job satisfaction, and therefore quality of care, having implications for all stakeholders of health care services. Staffing however, will remain the most challenging part of the equation as lack of nursing staff is foreseen globally in the coming decades turning the spotlight to teamwork. Therefore, clinical nurse leaders, administrators, and instructors are encouraged to emphasize on strengthening nursing teamwork for the benefit of quality patient care.
Study Strengths and Limitations
This study has both strengths and limitations. The main strengths of this study are the use of a reliable and valid tool, the
Conclusion
Teams and team-based health care are identified as core components for patient safety (Mitchell et al., 2012; WHO, 2016) where nurse clinicians as well as nurse leaders play a key role (Institute of Medicine, 2004). Nurse leaders not only have the role and responsibility of leading teams but also it is their duty to see to it that nursing staff get any education and training needed for practicing effective teamwork (Logan & Malone, 2018). Studies show that education and team training in nursing and health care is successful, not the least when it includes role plays and simulation (Brodsky et al., 2013; Campbell et al., 2020; Kalisch et al., 2013). The findings from our study as well as the study from Kalisch et al. (2010) from the US and the study from Goh et al. (2020) from Singapore not only identify the significant association of nursing teamwork and job satisfaction, but also the importance of identifying characteristics at the organizational, unit and individual staff level which may influence teamwork. Therefore, culturally sensitive interventions (Rice et al., 2021), directed at individual staff members, as well as the team or unit level, or even the organizational level, should be tailored to the different groups of staff according to work experience (Delisle et al., 2020). During the COVID-19 pandemic this has become an even bigger concern than before and recent studies, conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, confirm the importance of keeping our focus on teamwork and job satisfaction for nurse retention and quality of nursing care (Anjara et al., 2021; Lavoie-Tremblay et al., 2022; Said & El-Shafei, 2021; Zhang et al., 2022). Facilitating and supporting good teamwork should therefore be one of the priorities in every nurse leader's work.
Supplemental Material
sj-docx-1-son-10.1177_23779608231175027 - Supplemental material for The Relationship of Nursing Teamwork and Job Satisfaction in Hospitals
Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-son-10.1177_23779608231175027 for The Relationship of Nursing Teamwork and Job Satisfaction in Hospitals by Helga Bragadóttir and Beatrice J. Kalisch, Birna G. Flygenring, Gudný Bergthóra Tryggvadóttir in SAGE Open Nursing
Footnotes
Authorship Contribution Statement
It is confirmed that all listed authors meet the authorship criteria and all authors are in agreement with the content of the manuscript.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was funded by research grants from the University of Iceland, Landspitali-University Hospital and The Association of Registered Nurses in Iceland.
Ethical statement
The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board in each hospital, or analogue body in the smaller hospitals and notified to the Data Protection Authority of Iceland (S5388/2011). Participation was anonymous and participating equaled a written informed consent. The names of participants were never revealed to the researchers and the liaison persons distributed the questionnaires with an invitation letter and a response envelope, to staff members. All data were preserved in a protected space.
Supplemental Material
Supplemental material for this article is available online.
References
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