Attitude survey of physiatrist and rehabilitation professionals towards team working process in the city of Shiraz

Rehabilitation is an ongoing process with a range of different specialties. Team working is one of the important aspects of this process. Rehabilitation team includes physiatrist, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists and orthotic and prosthetic experts. So, the attitudes of these members towards team working will influence the quality of rehabilitation process. The purpose of this study was attitude survey of mentioned experts towards team working process. This is a descriptive and cross sectional study. The sampling method was enumeration and statistical population included physiatrist and residents, professionals of occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy, orthotics and prosthetics whom working in public and private treatment centers in the city of Shiraz. Information gathering tool was a researcher-designed attitude survey questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha coefficient is applied to check the questionnaire reliability. Factor analysis is used for investigating the structural characteristics of questionnaire, and T-test is used to check the attitude status. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0/87 confirms the good reliability of the questionnaire. Based on findings, all occupational groups have a positive attitude towards team working (P < 0.05). Effective and risky factors within teamwork process were extracted from the members’ perspective with regard to estimate the percentage of answers to the items of questionnaire. Client-centered approach, sufficient knowledge to other members’ skills, and compliance with ethical and professional values are some of effective factors in teamwork improvement. On the other hand, personal disputes between members, poor communication within the group members, inappropriate deemed of requesting help and lack of sufficient knowledge to the team working process are risky factors.