Assessment of interprofessional collaborative practice components of perioperative teams

Objective: The purpose of this study was to conduct a hospital workforce survey of nurses to determine what interprofessional collaborative practice components they have in place at their worksites. The findings could indicate what is needed to create, expand, and maintain an effective interprofessional collaborative practice environment.Methods: The study used a random sample of working perioperative nurses who were members of a national perioperative registered nurse association database and had interprofessional collaborative practice training either by continuing medical education or micro credentialing. These nurses were sent two surveys to assess their worksite presence of interprofessional components. These validated surveys assess an organization’s capacity to have an interprofessional collaboration by examining the workplace environment, environmental mechanism, and institutional support of interprofessional collaboration.Results: Interprofessional collaboration within the perioperative worksite setting exists in most of the structures in place. However, urban sites were more likely to lack supportive components that build, evaluate, and continuously create interprofessional teams.Conclusions: There was an uneven implementation of the interprofessional collaboration components. The components vary by site, with urban hospitals having few components resulting in a more asymmetrical interprofessional team. The study’s findings indicate a need for an assessment of worksite interprofessional collaboration to ensure all components are in place and for evaluation and improvement of interprofessional collaboration.