• Christine Anderson and Akkeneel Talsma.
• School of Nursing, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. fauve@umich.edu
• Nurs Res. 2011 Nov 1;60(6):378-85.

Background: Very little research has been focused on the interdisciplinary staffing characteristics of the operating room team, an essential component of providing safe patient care in a high-risk setting.Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine how the operating room staffing of two surgical specialties compares in terms of social network variables.Methods: Staffing data from all general and neurosurgical procedures performed at a large Midwestern hospital were analyzed using Social Network Analysis methods. Network variables include centrality, team coreness, and the core/periphery network structure. Multidimensional scaling, correlation, and descriptive statistics were used for the analysis.Results: The core/periphery network structure was characteristic of both surgical services. Team coreness, a measure of how often the team worked together, was associated with the length of the case (p < .001). Procedure start time predicts the team coreness measure, with cases starting later in the day less likely to be staffed with a high core team (p < .001). Registered nurses constitute the majority of core interdisciplinary team members in both groups.Discussion: Analysis of the core/periphery structure of specialty team staffing networks indicates that many procedures are staffed with individuals who are associated peripherally with the specialty. Registered nurses as core group members are in a position to take a leadership role in the communication of norms and process variations to noncore members. The effect of having late starting cases staffed with a lower core team should be studied further because it pertains to patient outcomes. Future work should strive to account for the complex and dynamic nature of team development.

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