• Deborah Kendall-Gallagher, Scott Reeves, Janet A Alexanian, and Simon Kitto.
• University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio School of Nursing, San Antonio, TX. Electronic address: kendallgalla@uthscsa.edu.
• J Crit Care. 2017 Apr 1; 38: 20-26.

PurposeThis article presents a secondary analysis of nurse interviews from a 2-year comparative ethnographic study exploring cultures of collaboration across intensive care units (ICU). Critically ill patients rely on their interprofessional health care team to communicate and problem-solve quickly to give patients the best outcome available. Critical care nurses function at the hub of patient care giving them a distinct perspective of how interprofessional interactions impact collaborative practice.Materials And MethodsSecondary analysis of a subset of primary qualitative data is appropriate when analysis extends rather than exceeds the primary study aim. Primary ethnographic data included 178 semistructured interviews of ICU professionals from 8 medical-surgical ICUs in North America; purposeful maximum variation sampling was used to represent each profession accurately. Fifteen anonymized ICU nurse interview transcripts were coded iteratively to identify emerging themes impacting interprofessional collaborative practice.ResultsFindings suggest that quality of interprofessional collaboration is a product of a multitude of factors occurring at multiple levels within the organization. Managerial and organizational factors related to ICU nurse training and staffing may impede development of nurses' interprofessional skills.ConclusionDeliberative development of ICU nurses' interprofessional skills is essential if nursing is to move from primary coordinator to active collaborator in patient management.Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

21 keywords...

hide…