Interprofessional teamwork, quality of care and turnover intention in geriatric care: A cross-sectional study in 55 acute geriatric units

Abstract

Background and objectives: The complex health problems of older persons require that health professionals closely work together, in particular when an acute decline necessitates admission at an acute geriatric unit. These working conditions may cause additional stress in staff. This study aims to identify the relation between interprofessional teamwork, the quality of care and turnover intention in acute geriatric units.

Design, setting, participants and methods: Perceptions of interprofessional teamwork, quality of care and turnover intention among team members of 55 acute geriatric units were measured using validated questionnaires. A multilevel linear regression model was built for quality of care and logistic regression for turnover intention, with random intercept for acute geriatric unit.

Results: The overall response rate was 60%. Of the 890 respondents, 71% were nursing professionals, 20% allied health professionals, 5% physicians, and 4% administrative staff. Twenty-three percent reported poor to fair quality of care in their unit; 19% was not sure that patients or families had been given enough means to organise care after discharge. Fifteen percent reported turnover intention (18%, 8%, 9% and 11% among nursing professionals, allied health professionals, physicians and administrative workers respectively, p = 0.005). Higher perceived interprofessional teamwork was related to higher quality of care (estimated coefficient 0.05, p < 0.001) and lower turnover intention in nursing professionals only (estimated OR 0.94, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Creating a care environment of good interprofessional teamwork can help acute geriatric units to retain nursing professionals in the job and achieve higher quality of care.

Keywords: Ethical climate; Intention to leave the job; Interprofessional collaboration; Quality of care; Teamwork.