SALBIS Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Leon, Campus of Ponferrada s/n, 24401 Ponferrada, León, Spain.
School of Economics and Management, University of Leon, Facultad de Económicas y Empresariales, Campus de Vegazana, 24071 León, Spain.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 Jun 27;15(7):1345. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15071345.
There is evidence that relations between physicians and nurses within healthcare institutions might be shaped by informal aspects of such relations and by links to people external to the organization, with an impact on work performance. Social network analysis is underutilized in exploring such associations. The paper aims to describe physicians’ and nurses’ relationships outside their clinical units and to explore what kind of ties are related to job performance. A network analysis was performed on cross-sectional data. The study population consisted of 196 healthcare employees working in a public hospital and a primary healthcare centre in Spain. Relational data were analysed using the UCINET software package. Measures included: (i) sample characteristics; (ii) social network variables; and (iii) team performance ratings. Descriptive statistics (means, medians, percentages) were used to characterize staff and performance ratings. A correlational analysis was conducted to examine the strength of relationships between four different types of ties. Our findings suggest that external ties only contribute to improving the performance of physicians at both the individual and team level. They are focused on the decision-making process about the therapeutic plan and, therefore, might need to seek advice outside the workplace. In contrast, external ties are not relevant for the work performance of nurses, as they need to find solutions to immediate problems in a short period of time, having strong ties in the workplace. Social network analysis can illuminate relations within healthcare organizations and inform the development of innovative interventions.
有证据表明，医疗机构内医生和护士之间的关系可能受到这些关系的非正式方面以及与组织外部人员联系的影响，从而影响工作绩效。社会网络分析在探索这种关联方面的应用还不够充分。本文旨在描述医生和护士在其临床科室之外的关系，并探讨哪些关系与工作绩效有关。本研究采用横断面对医生和护士的关系进行了网络分析。研究对象包括西班牙一家公立医院和一家初级保健中心的 196 名医疗保健工作者。使用 UCINET 软件包分析关系数据。研究的衡量指标包括：（i）样本特征；（ii）社会网络变量；（iii）团队绩效评估。采用描述性统计（均值、中位数、百分比）来描述员工和绩效评估。进行了相关性分析，以检验四种不同类型联系之间的关系强度。我们的研究结果表明，外部联系仅有助于提高医生在个人和团队层面的绩效。这些联系主要集中在治疗计划的决策过程上，因此可能需要在工作场所之外寻求建议。相比之下，外部联系与护士的工作绩效无关，因为他们需要在短时间内找到解决眼前问题的方法，而在工作场所拥有强大的联系。社会网络分析可以阐明医疗保健组织内的关系，并为创新干预措施的制定提供信息。
