Intensity of Interprofessional Collaboration and related factors in Intensive Care Units. A descriptive cross-sectional study with an analytical approach.

Objective: To determine the Intensity of Collaboration between the intensive care professionals of a third level hospital.
Method: Descriptive cross-sectional study with an analytical approach.
Setting: 6 intensive care units of a third level hospital.
Sample: nurses and doctors. Consecutive type non-probabilistic sampling.
Data Collection: sociodemographic, economic, motivation and professional satisfaction variables, and the intensity of collaboration using the "Scale of Intensity of Interprofessional Collaboration in Health."
Results: A total of 102 health professionals (91 nurses and 11 doctors) were included. The mean overall Intensity of Collaboration (IoC) was moderate. Men showed higher scores in all factors (p<.05). The IoC global score was higher in the group of professionals with ≤10 years of experience (p=.043) and those who were highly satisfied with the profession (p=.037). Physicians presented higher scores in the global IdC (p=.037) and in the Collaboration mean (p=.020) independently in the multivariate models. A negative linear relationship (rho: -0,202, p=.042) was observed between age and the overall IoC score. Professionals aged ≤30years reported a higher perception of Shared Activities (p=.031). Negative linear relationships were observed between years of experience and total IoC score (rho: -0,202, p=.042) and patients' Perception score (rho: -0.241, p=0.015). The research activity also showed to be a variable related to a greater degree of Collaboration at a global level and in some of the factors (p<.05). The scale of IoC obtained a Cronbach's α of 0,9.
Conclusions: The intensity of interprofessional collaboration in ICUs is moderate. Professionals with experience of ≤10 years, a higher level of satisfaction and participation in research activities show a greater intensity of collaboration. Doctors perceive collaboration more intensely than nurses. All factors contribute equally to the internal consistency of the questionnaire.
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