Characteristics of positive working relationships between nursing and support service employees.

Collaboration among healthcare providers is essential for maximizing limited human resources in hospitals. This research identifies factors that contribute to developing collaborative working relationships between nursing and support services staff. Those factors include the predisposed mind set of leadership, how the actions of leaders impact the behaviors of staff, the nature of the relationship between support service employees and the nursing staff, ways in which learning happens, and the nature of communication. With a sample of nearly 300 individual participants in 10 geographically diverse hospitals, the author discusses the process, outcomes, and implications of her qualitative study.