The development of a measurement instrument focusing on team collaboration in patient transfer processes

Purpose Team collaboration is essential to ensure the quality of care and patient safety when critically ill patients are transferred from an intensive care unit (ICU) to a general ward. Measuring team collaboration in the patient transfer process can help gain insights into how team collaboration is perceived and how it can be improved. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and testing of a questionnaire aiming to measure perceived team collaboration in the patient transfer process from ICU to the general ward. This study also aims to analyze the results to see how the survey could help improve team collaboration within ICU transitional care. Design/methodology/approach Statements, factors and main areas intended to measure perceived team collaboration were developed from a theory. The questionnaire was tested in two ICUs at two hospitals located in Sweden, and the results were analyzed statistically. Findings The results showed that the questionnaire could be used for measuring perceived team collaboration in this process. The results from the survey gave insights that can be useful when improving team collaboration in ICU transitional care. Research limitations/implications The collaboration between two research subjects, Nursing Science and Quality Management, has given new perspectives in how cultural and systemic differences and opportunities can help improving team collaboration in ICU transitional care, by shifting focus from the individual to team, culture, system, process and continuous improvement. Practical implications The developed questionnaire can be used to measure perceived team collaboration and to identify areas for improving team collaboration in the ICU transitional care process. Originality/value There is a sparse amount of research about measuring team collaboration in ICU transitional care, and this study contributes to filling this research gap.