Upplevelser av teamarbete och dess effekter på patientsäkerheten inom ambulanssjukvården. : En kvalitativ intervjustudie

Sammanfattning: Introduction: The ambulance service has undergone significant changes, from a transport service to treating advanced and life-threatening conditions. This places great demands on the ambulance team responsible for patient care, and the specialist-trained ambulance nurse has a responsibility for ensuring effective teamwork. Previous research has shown that teamwork is strongly related to patient safety, but there is limited research on the ambulance nurses' own experiences of teamwork and how they perceive that teamwork affects patient safety. Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate ambulance nurses' experiences of collaboration in teams and their experiences of how teamwork affects patient safety. Method: Qualitative interview study with an inductive approach was used. Ten interviews were conducted with practicing ambulance nurses. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed according to Graneheim and Lundman's method for qualitative content analysis. Results: The results showed that there were factors that influenced how ambulance nurses experienced collaboration in the team, such as situational awareness, communication, competence and experience were identified. Shortcomings in one or more of these factors negatively affected the team and patient care. The team was positively affected when roles in the team were clear, and communication worked well. When team members had the same level of education, safety increased because they had similar pre-understanding and similar ways to care for the patients. Conclusion: This study has shown that patient care is affected by how teamwork works. The study can, therefore, be used for improving teamwork, which in turn would improve patient safety.