Validity and reliability analysis of the Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire in the Turkish context

Research on patient safety demonstrated that medical errors stemming mostly from poor teamwork and ineffective communication between health caregivers are one of the leading causes of death. Empirical studies provided evidence that team training programs can be useful to improve the quality of healthcare services. TeamSTEPPS® (Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety) designed by the Agency for Health Research and Quality and the U.S. Department of Defence is one of the widely accepted evidence-based team training programs. Within the TeamSTEPPS program, the Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire was developed as a measurement tool both to examine the level of teamwork perceptions of healthcare personnel and to measure the effectiveness of the TeamSTEPPS team training program. This thesis aimed to evaluate, in the Turkish context, the psychometric properties of the TeamSTEPPS Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire, which had five subdimensions and a total of 35 items. In accordance with this purpose, the procedure proposed by the studies in the scale adaptation literature was followed to adapt the instrument without creating any methodological biases. Data were collected from 238 healthcare staff (i.e., physicians, nurses, midwives, health technicians, physiotherapists and dieticians) working in four hospitals located in two different cities in Turkey. Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses were performed in order to test the validity of the scale. The reliability of the model was assessed using composite reliability coefficients. In addition, Cronbach's alpha coefficients were calculated to assess the internal consistency of the entire scale and its five subdimensions. The results of the analyses revealed that the 29-item Turkish version of the TeamSTEPPS Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire is a reliable and valid measurement tool for the assessment of healthcare professionals' perceptions toward teamwork. Keywords: TeamSTEPPS®, teamwork, healthcare teams, scale adaptation