A Study of Teamwork and Job Satisfaction in Nursing

ARTICLE: Nursing Teamwork and Job Satisfaction

• The aim of this study was to explore the influence of unit characteristics, staff characteristics, and teamwork on job satisfaction with current position and occupation.
• The study was conducted because of the nursing shortage in the US, plus the fact that many RNs leave the profession because of job dissatisfaction.
• Researchers targeted Acute Care Units (80) across 5 hospitals to question nursing teams via an anonymous 33 item survey
• 3,675 respondents completed and returned the Nursing Teamwork Survey which included demographic questions as well as questions about their perceptions of teamwork and job satisfaction
• Teamwork was regarded as the following 5 factors:
  • Trust – sharing the perception that members will perform actions to reach interdependent goals, and act in the interest of the team
  • Team Orientation – cohesiveness, team success takes precedence over individual needs or performance
  • Backup – helping each other with tasks and responsibilities
  • Shared Mental Model – mutual conceptualization of tasks, roles, strengths, and weaknesses
  • Team Leadership – structure, direction and support
• The results of this study demonstrate that in nursing teams on acute care patient units, a higher level of teamwork and perceptions of higher levels of staffing adequacy leads to greater job satisfaction with the current position.
• Higher levels of teamwork and perceptions of staffing adequacy also lead to greater job satisfaction with the occupation.