Attitudes Toward Interprofessional Health Care Teams in a Regional Cancer Institute: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study

Objectives: Oncology is a rapidly changing clinical setting. Research has shown improved patient outcomes and staff satisfaction following interprofessional collaborative education, but there has been limited research on perceptions of interprofessional collaboration among oncology health care professionals. The aims of this study were to: 1) assess attitudes of health care professionals toward interprofessional teams in oncology care, and 2) assess for differences in attitudes across various demographic and workplace groups.

Data sources: The research design was an electronic cross-sectional survey. The main instrument utilized was the Attitudes Toward Interprofessional Health Care Teams (ATIHCT) survey. A total of 187 oncology health care professionals from a regional New England cancer institute completed the survey. The ATIHCT mean score was high (M = 4.07, SD = 0.51). Analysis revealed statistically significant differences in mean score among participant age groups (P = .03). Significant differences (P = .01) were also noted between different professional groups and their time constraints sub-scale score on the ATIHCT scale. A higher mean score occurred in participants who had a current certification (M = 4.13, SD = 0.50) compared to those without (M = 4.05, SD = 0.46).

Conclusion: High overall scores in attitudes toward health care teams suggest that cancer care settings are primed for interprofessional care model implementation. Future studies should examine strategies to improve attitudes among specific groups.

Implications for nursing practice: Nurses are in a position to lead interprofessional teamwork in the clinical setting. Further research is necessary to examine best collaborative models in health care to support interprofessional teamwork.