Evaluation of TeamSTEPPS integration across a curriculum regarding team attitudes: A longitudinal study

Abstract

Introduction: The ability to function as an effective member of the healthcare team is essential for graduate nurses upon entry into practice. Team training is therefore, an important element of nursing education. A convenient and cost-effective approach to providing team training to nursing students is through the TeamSTEPPS^® curriculum. The purpose of the study was to determine if an intentional integration of TeamSTEPPS^® principles into simulation-based team training modules would improve attitudes toward teamwork in a cohort of undergraduate nursing students.

Methods: A quasi–experimental time series nonequivalent control group design was used. A convenience sample of 115 first semester students (108 completed) who received the TeamSTEPPS^® training and 77 final semester undergraduate students who did not receive the intervention participated. Repeated measures of the TeamSTEPPS-Teamwork Attitude Questionnaire (T-TAQ) were obtained initially and three times throughout the curriculum.  Final semester students served as the comparison group and completed the T-TAQ without formal team training.

Results: After participation in ten hours of simulation-based instructional activities, T-TAQ scores significantly increased from baseline and maintained over time. No statistical difference was identified between first semester students without formal team training and graduating students without formal team training.

Conclusions: The findings suggest an intentional integration of TeamSTEPPS^® principles throughout an undergraduate-nursing curriculum improve and maintain student teamwork attitudes over time. It is recommended that TeamSTEPPS^® principles be intentionally integrated throughout undergraduate nursing curricula.