consider leaving their jobs within 1 year (Kovner et al.
2007). Job dissatisfaction is reported to be strongly
associated with nurse turnover (Hayes et al. 2006) and
intent to leave (Brewer et al. 2009) thus highlighting the
importance of understanding what promotes nursing
staff job satisfaction.
Teamwork has been associated with a higher level of
job staff satisfaction (Horak et al. 1991, Leppa 1996,
Cox 2003, Rafferty et al. 2001, Gifford et al. 2002,
Collette 2004). The relationship between teamwork and
job satisfaction in the acute care inpatient hospital
nursing team, defined as the RNs, Licensed Practical
Nurses (LPNs), nursing assistants (NAs) and unit secretaries
(UAs) who work together on a patient care unit
to provide nursing care to a group of inpatients, has
received scant attention. Most recent research in
healthcare on teamwork has been in peri-operative and
emergency settings and primarily focused on interdisciplinary
teams (Morey et al. 2002, Silen-Lipponen
et al. 2005, Salas et al. 2007, Mills et al. 2008).