Evaluation of employees 'attitude to team work and patient safety in lsmul neonatology clinic

Abstract

Aim of the study. To evaluate employees' attitudes towards teamwork and patient safety at LSMUL Clinic of Neonatology. Objectives. 1. To evaluate employees’ attitudes towards teamwork. 2. To evaluate employees’ attitudes towards patient safety. 3. To identify the links between staff attitudes towards teamwork and patient safety. Methods. The study was conducted at the LSMUL Clinic of Neonatology. A quantitative study was carried out using a one-minute anonymous questionnaire method that interviewed all staff working in the clinic. In this way, data was collected between November and December 2018. 133 orderly questionnaires were received (response rate 70.4%). A qualitative study was conducted in March 2019. A semi-structured interview was used for the study. A quantitative research data analysis was performed using SPSS 20.0 compilation and analysis software, MS Excel 2007 program was also used. The analysis of qualitative research content was carried out by systematic steps: multiple text reading; category exclusion by keywords; interpreting categories. Results. When evaluating teamwork statements, many the clinic's staff agreed with the statements: in an emergency situation we work as a unified team (84.2 percent); working professionally; personal problems are forgotten at work (82%); I know the names of all colleagues (88.7%). More than a half employees agreed that it is often difficult to oppose the opinion of doctors (56.3%), almost half (48.9%) of workers agreed that a positive atmosphere helps to improve work in the department, but only two-sixths agreed that employees respect each other (31.6%). Less frequently agreed with the following statements: decisions are made taking into account the opinion of the concerned employees (27.8%); it is easy to talk about problems related to patient care (32.3%), and Evaluating the claims for patient safety many clinic's staff agreed with the following statements: all staff in the department feel responsible for patient safety (83.5%); when shifting, important issues are discussed in detail (87.2%); the section follows clinical algorithms and evidence-based methodologies (86.4%); changing shifts does not cause any problems for patients (87.2%). Less often respondents agreed with the statements: they work in a \"crisis mode\", constantly doing too much and too quickly (43.6%); there are problems with patient safety (30.8%); fatigue reduces the quality of work and they noticed colleagues’ mistakes that could have harmed patients (28.6%). The analysis of the survey data revealed the correlation between evaluating teamwork and patient safety. Evaluating claims the (Cramer's V) relationship strength coefficient - weak links from 0.227 to 0.269 - was set, the average relationship coefficient (Cramer's V = 0.428) was set when assessing the patient's sense of safety in this section. Conclusions. Employees evaluating teamwork and patient safety were more likely to be positive about teamwork itself, patient safety, however, when evaluating internal processes related to proper decision-making, the possibility to express an opinion or find the right solution for errors, the respondents were less likely to agree. In addition, employees who believe that all employees in the section feel responsible for patient safety significantly more often positively evaluated patient safety and teamwork