An investigation of nurse, physician and social worker disciplinary centeredness and its relationship to team skills and attitudes toward geriatric interdisciplinary team care

This investigation examined the relationship of nurse, physician and social worker disciplinary centeredness, team skills and attitudes toward geriatric interdisciplinary health care teams. This study used an archival design to explore geriatric interdisciplinary care plans developed by 49 nurses, 113 physicians and 34 social workers who participated in the national multi-site Geriatric Interdisciplinary Team Training program funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation of New York City. The concept of disciplinary centeredness, or the ability of an individual to share decision making on a team, and its impact on team function, is based on the Qualls and Czir Model of Professional Functioning. Specifically, geriatric interdisciplinary care plans were examined and the responses coded to quantify the degree to which nurses, physicians and social workers are disciplinary centered. In addition to using the GITT Test of Geriatric Interdisciplinary Care Planning to evaluate disciplinary centeredness, this study examined team skills and attitudes toward health care teams as measured by the Team Skills Scale and the Attitudes Toward Health Care Teams Scale, respectively. The results from this study did not demonstrate that disciplinary centeredness can predict an individuals team skills and attitudes toward health care teams. However, some of the information gleaned from this study suggests specific disciplinary differences. Specifically, nurses and social workers have more positive attitudes toward health care teams (p < .01), and also are able to share in decision making as demonstrated by the significant difference in MD centeredness (p < .01).