BSN Student Attitudes Towards Teamwork Using TeamSTEPPS® 2.0 Vs. a Conventional Method

Preparing nursing students to provide safe patient care in a collaborative team environment requires teamwork strategies and training. Exposure to teamwork tools and strategies may improve student attitudes towards teamwork. The aim of this study was to measure accelerated second-degree track BSN student attitudes towards teamwork comparing a conventional method (Teamwork flyer; control group) versus teamwork training (Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety –TeamSTEPPS; intervention group) in a randomized, controlled trial with a parallel study design comparing the two treatment groups. The unit of randomization was the individual student. The setting was a School of Nursing in a large Midwest university in a major metropolitan area. Participants included a convenience sample of 42 BSN accelerated second-degree track nursing students enrolled in the course titled Interprofessional Collaborative Practice during the 7^th semester of the BSN nursing program.

            The TeamSTEPPS -Teamwork Attitudes Questionnaire (T-TAQ) was administered pre-, immediately post-, and 30 days post-intervention. Though none of the T-TAQ subscales showed significant differences between the Intervention and Control groups, some differential directional changes were noted. For the Intervention group, Leadership, Team structure, Situational monitoring and Communication showed a positive change in attitudes from Pre- to Post-survey. Team structure, Communication and Mutual support showed no decrease in attitudes 30 days post-training. There was a positive but insignificant difference (p value- 0.074) in the Pre-/Post- survey for Mutual Support knowledge and skills; there was also a positive change in attitude towards Mutual Support behaviors after TeamSTEPPS training while the control group showed a slight decline in attitudes. There was a statistically significant drop in the control group’s knowledge and skills of Communication 30 days post- training (p value- 0.0422) indicating that receiving the flyer did not result in sustained knowledge or attitudes towards communication skills. These findings demonstrate that TeamSTEPPS training produced some positive directional changes that were sustained over 30 days with BSN nursing students in promoting and sustaining positive attitudes towards teamwork for both Communication and Mutual support skills which are needed for effective teamwork.