Exploration of a nursing working climate index using indicators of inter- and intraprofessional collaboration. (Modern Greek)

Background: A decline in the satisfaction of nurses with their working conditions has been observed. This may in part be due to problems of professional collaboration. Aim: Investigation of the working environment and the professional role of Greek nurses. Study was made of the parameters of the working climate of the therapeutic team and their inter-correlations and of the effect of demographic and working environment characteristics on the degree of interprofessional collaboration. Method: A specially designed questionnaire was completed by 342 nurses and nurse assistants (85% response rate). The questionnaire was based on national and international bibliographical evidence and piloted in a Greek sample being collected between May and November 2007. It consisted of two parts, the first of which covered demographic questions. The second part, dealing with indicators of professional collaboration contained questions that aimed at exploring: (a) the nurses' relationships with their colleagues, (b) their satisfaction with the behaviour of the doctors towards them, and (c) their perceptions of how the nurse-doctor working relationship could be improved. The level of statistical significance was set to [alpha]=0.05. Results: Analysis of the demographic characteristics in relation to the three indicators showed that the nurses' relations with their colleagues (inter-professional collaboration) were not related to demographic characteristic, and that the majority (75.5%) were satisfied with interprofessional collaboration. Conversely, the degree of collaboration appears to be influenced by their education. In addition, 72.5% of the nurses reported that they are fairly satisfied with the way they are treated by the medical staff. Their responses show that the nurses would welcome a course on interdisciplinary education and team working in order to achieve better interprofessional collaboration, especially with the medical staff. Conclusions: Role conflict, deficiencies in reciprocal communication and lack of continuing education are factors which may contribute to the declining job satisfaction of Greek nursing personnel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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