The Swedish Version of the TeamSTEPPS^® Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire (T-TPQ): A Validation Study

Abstract

Purpose

The delivery of effective and safe healthcare to patients is highly dependent on careful collaboration between healthcare professionals. Although teamwork is an important component for patient safety, effective teamwork is not always carried out in hospital wards, leading to negative consequences for the patients. Teamwork measurements can be used to evaluate and provide feedback to healthcare professionals to support team performance and to identify areas for improvement. The TeamSTEPPS^® Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire (T-TPQ) evaluates Team Structure and four core competences of teamwork (Leadership, Situation Monitoring, Mutual Support, and Communication) among healthcare professionals in various healthcare settings. The questionnaire was judged to be relevant in a Swedish healthcare context and was translated into Swedish. This study aimed to test the reliability and construct validity of the Swedish version of the T-TPQ.

Methods

A total of 450 (of 1176) frontline healthcare professionals working at four hospitals responded to the questionnaire. A confirmatory factor analysis was carried out to test the factor structure. Cronbach’s alpha was used to measure internal consistency.

Results

The hypothesized five-factor model of the five dimensions showed acceptable goodness-of-fit indexes. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the total T-TPQ was 0.94, and the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the dimensions ranged from 0.79 to 0.92. The intercorrelation coefficients ranged from 0.27 to 0.74.

Conclusion

The Swedish version of the T-TPQ showed acceptable reliability and validity for measuring healthcare professionals’ individual perceptions of teamwork at the group level. Due to the low response rate, further studies are required to test the validity of the Swedish T-TPQ.

Keywords:

• healthcare professionals
• perceptions
• questionnaire
• teamwork performance
• validation study

Ethics

The Research Ethics Committee at Karlstad University approved the study (C2018/50) and the head manager at each division gave permission to conduct the study. By completing and returning the questionnaire, the healthcare professionals consented to participate in the study.

Acknowledgments

The authors want to thank the healthcare professionals who participated in the study. We also want to thank Jari Appelgren, Karlstad University, Sweden, for statistical support.

Author Contributions

All authors made substantial contributions to the conception and design, data acquisition, or data analysis and interpretation; drafted or written, or substantially revised or critically reviewed the article; agreed on the journal to which the article was submitted, reviewed and agreed on all versions of the article before submission, and during revision; and agreed to be accountable for the contents of the article.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work.