ABSTRACT
As a result of the complex nature of chronic heart failure (HF), these patients require an interprofessional team approach for care and treatment. This is because an interprofessional approach can manage resources more effectively and improve treatment efficacy. This research was done to evaluate the status of teamwork in caring for HF patients. In this cross-sectional study, the views of 308 members of the care team were collected through the use of Team Assessment Questionnaire (TAQ). The mean and standard deviation of teamwork was 2.4 ± 0.3. There was a significant difference between the teamwork status (total TAQ score) and age, gender and job experience (p < 0.05). The highest mean was for the team leadership dimension of the questionnaire (2.5 ± 0.5) while the lowest was for team foundation (2.4 ± 0.3). Results indicated that the status of teamwork is almost moderate. Teamwork in caring for HF patients was influenced by many factors, including age, gender, and job experience. Teamwork can be enhanced by establishing the equality of women and men’s rights, continuous training and attention to proportional age and gender combinations.
Acknowledgements
The authors extend their appreciation to the participants for their cooperation throughout the study. They also appreciate the assistance of the members of the Ethics and Research Boards of Kerman University of Medical Sciences. This study was part of a Speciality PhD dissertation. (Ethics approval code: HREC No: ir.kmu.rec.1395.256).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Informed consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.