A Study of Teamwork and Job Satisfaction in Nursing

By Conexus MedStaff - Posted May 17, 2017

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.