Factors Related to Interprofessional Collaboration and Teamwork Climate in the Family Health Strategy

Abstract

Background: Working with an interprofessional focus is increasingly necessary, in view of the growing complexity of the population's health needs. This study aims to assess interprofessional collaboration and the teamwork climate in primary health care and determine whether there is a relationship between these two variables. In addition, the relationship of these two measures with the participants' sociodemographic variables was also analyzed. Methods: The AITCS-II instrument was used to measure interprofessional collaboration, while to diagnose teamwork climate, the ECTE instrument was used, a version adapted to the SUS context of the Teamwork Climate Inventory instrument. These two instruments were applied online together with a questionnaire for the sociodemographic characterization of the 544 participants, who belonged to 97 Family Health Strategy teams in a Brazilian municipality. Results: The study showed a strong correlation between interprofessional collaboration and teamwork climate. The studied sample had an unsatisfactory overall score regarding interprofessional collaboration. In addition, there was no relationship between teamwork climate or interprofessional collaboration and the participants' sociodemographic data; including the time of training and the presence or absence of postgraduate studies in public health or family health in the curriculum. Conclusions: The study corroborates the literature, by indicating a correlation between teamwork and interprofessional collaboration, pointing to ECTE as another way to evaluate interprofessional work and the health work process. As for the sociodemographic variables, the results raise an alert towards the strengthening of interprofessional education actions, both during the training of new professionals and in the work process of professionals who are already working.