Nurses' perception of teamwork and its relationship with the occurrence and reporting of adverse events: A questionnaire survey in teaching hospitals

Aims To identify the levels of teamwork and its relationship with the occurrence and reporting of adverse events among Iranian nurses. Background Strengthening teamwork is emphasized worldwide for enhancing quality care and patient safety. Methods This study applied a cross-sectional survey design. A total of 327 Iranian nurses from eight teaching hospitals participated in a self-administered survey using simple random sampling. The Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire was used to measure the teamwork. The frequency of occurrence and reporting of adverse events were measured with two questions. Data were analysed using descriptive analyses, independent t tests and logistic regression analysis. Results The mean teamwork score was 3.81 out of 5. Among the nurses, 48.0% had experienced adverse events in the past 6 months and 79.8% reported having an appropriate performance in adverse events reporting. Teamwork was significantly associated with lower occurrences of adverse events and better adverse events reporting. Specifically, nurses with higher situation monitoring (odds ratio (OR) = 0.47), mutual support (OR = 3.18) and team leadership (OR = 2.09) scores were more likely to report adverse events. Nurses with higher situation monitoring scores were less likely to experience the occurrence of adverse events (OR = 0.38). Conclusions Nurses' perception of teamwork was moderate to high. Teamwork was associated with the occurrence and reporting of adverse events. Further study is needed to identify the effects of teamwork training on the learning outcomes, including teamwork, occurrence and the reporting of adverse events among nurses. IMPLICATIOS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT Nursing managers should consider multiple educational strategies including structured teamwork training to improve staff nurses' teamwork competency. Administrative initiatives and quality improvement projects are needed to increase nurses' performance in the reporting of adverse events through an accreditation process.