The Nursing Teamwork Survey (NTS) user guide
The Nursing Teamwork Survey (NTS) was developed by Kalisch et al (2010) to differentiate levels of nursing teamwork on inpatient acute care facilities. The NTS can be used to assist in identifying the level of nursing teamwork on your ward/unit.
The survey should be conducted before the new WOW is implemented and resurveyed at least six months after it has been implemented.
Two versions are available:
- The NTS short version is for use on individual wards/units as the demographic data has been excluded to maintain confidentiality.
- The NTS which contains demographic data as well as the questions specific to the NTS. This survey would be useful for measuring nursing teamwork across wards or hospitals.
Pre evaluation is one of the first things you will need to perform.
One copy of the NTS should be printed for each member of the nursing staff. You will need to develop a cover sheet which explains the following:
- Thank the nurse for completing;
- State that the answers to the individual survey will remain anonymous and not to put his/her name on it;
- The results will be shared with all nurses;
- Date that the survey will need to be returned by (usually 2 weeks after distribution);
- Place to return the survey to.
The higher the response rate for your survey the more relevant the findings. You might need to encourage a good response rate by frequent reminders.
NB if you are going to get the staff to fill out the Nursing Workplace Satisfaction Questionnaire you might consider giving it out at the same time.
Data entry and analysis sheet for NTSshort version
An Excel 2007 version workbook has been provided to enter the data for the NTS (short version only) analysis.
There are 3 work sheets
1 / NTS data entry 12 / NTS data entry 2
3 / Comparative graphs
There are 3 work sheets to allow for data entry for both the pre and post implementation surveys. Worksheet 3 is where you will find the comparative graphs once you have entered the survey results.
How to use the NTS data entry sheets
The data entry sheets have been designed so that the entry can be performed by someone with limited Excel experience.
NTS data entry Sheets - explanation
There are two data entry sheets. The numbers across the top represent responses to the individual nurses’ surveys. Enough columns have been provided for the entry of 50 surveys but you only need to add the surveys for your staff be it 10 or 50 nurses.
The nurses are asked to tick one of five responses and each possible response is allocated a number:
Rarely=0
25% of the time =1
50% of the time=2
75% of the time=3
Always=4
The numberis chosen from the drop down menu next to the question in the worksheet. If there is no response to the question choose 2. A total score for each individual survey will appear at row37. The lowest possible score per survey is 0 and the highest possible score is 132.
When all data for the survey questions has been entered scroll across to the end of the table and the total score for the question will appear in BE In the next column (BF) will appear the average score for each question. A total average survey score for the ward/unit in boxBF 37.NB the higher the average score the better the result.
.
Comparative graphs sheet – explanation
Graphs will automatically appear in this work sheet. When data has been entered from the second survey you will have comparisons and you will be able to identify whether there has been an improvement in nursing teamwork.
Reference
Kalisch, B., Lee, H. & Salas, E. (2010). The development and testing of the Nursing Teamwork Survey. Nursing Research, 59 (1) pp42-50.
NTS Survey user guide – NSW Dept Health Nursing and Midwifery Office 2011Page 1