Cultural diversity in health care teams: A systematic integrative review and research agenda.

BACKGROUND: Although team-based work is deemed key to improving the quality of national health care systems, adverse events related to teamwork account for up to one third of all incidents. Health care teams are typically multiprofessional and diverse in many aspects, but cultural diversity is one of the most challenging. PURPOSES: The objective of this review is to systematically analyze the literature to better understand the impact of cultural diversity in health care teams on team processes as well as team and patient outcomes. This study also explores the conditions that enable or hinder team functioning. METHODOLOGY: Through a systematic integrative literature review, this study builds on the input-process-output-context framework. Multiple searches of the main databases led to identifying 43 relevant articles. FINDINGS: The results suggest that, when not proactively managed, cultural diversity may have a negative effect on team communication and integration, increasing team conflict and thereby negatively influencing team performance, team climate, and patient safety, both directly and indirectly. Yet, when managed properly and in the presence of engaged and culturally sensitive leadership, cultural training, and open and transparent procedures, cultural diversity in health care teams can be an asset to health care organizations. Analyzing and aggregating these findings into an integrative framework, our study identifies several themes and a research agenda for future studies on culturally diverse health care teams. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Our findings suggest that culturally diverse health care teams experience a number of challenges, pointing to the need for action or structures that enable these teams to perform better, such as emphasizing learning and allowing team members time to get to know each other outside work.

Exploring the antecedents of the mental health of business professionals in Sweden.

BACKGROUND: Business professionals are an important occupational group that carries responsibility for the economic welfare of organizations and of society at large. These professionals have recently been reported to be experiencing increased mental strain, which may have a significant effect on the role they play in organizations and in society. Understanding the causes of this strain is thus an important endeavour. OBJECTIVE: This study explores the antecedents of the mental health of business professionals. METHODS: Multiple linear regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between business professionals' mental health and its demographic, work-related, and other triggers. T-tests and descriptive statistics were used to explore the gender of the respondents in relation to these triggers and mental health. RESULTS: Compared with their male counterparts, female business professionals report poorer mental health; however, no gender differences were found in job satisfaction or life satisfaction. According to this study, age, overtime pay, higher salary and position as a manager have a positive relation with mental health, whereas working overtime has a negative relation with mental health. Job satisfaction and life satisfaction are important determinants of the mental health of business professionals. CONCLUSIONS: Business professionals are important to the economic welfare of their organization and of society as a whole. Our study suggests that demographic characteristics, work-related aspects and subjective dimensions of well-being have a profound effect on the mental health of business professionals.

Antecedents of Psychological Well-Being among Swedish Audit Firm Employees.

The attractiveness of audit firms as employers appears to have decreased in recent years and the audit profession is currently experiencing high employee turnover. A shortage of personnel increases the risk of long-term stress and illness. This paper therefore proposes audit firm employees' well-being as an important research topic and explores the antecedents of well-being of Swedish audit firm employees in comparison with those of other business professionals. Based on a nationwide survey of members of the Swedish association of business professionals, with a focus on psychological well-being (measured through General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12)), the study shows that the psychological well-being of the professionals in this study generally aligns with the results from similar studies in a Swedish context. However, the findings indicate that audit industry respondents have the lowest psychological well-being and that employer change, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction were the strongest antecedents of their psychological well-being.

Experiences of acute care by persons with mental health problems: An integrative literature review.

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Understanding experiences of acute care by persons with mental health problems is vital for improving these experiences through the development of different parts of the care delivery and its facilities. Literature has extensively addressed experiences of persons with mental health problems in acute care settings. Yet, there is a paucity of studies that aggregate and organize these findings in presenting development-oriented solutions for the improvements of these experiences. WHAT THE PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: Acute care can be understood through patients' experiences of structure (such as setting, staff and resources); process (such as communication and interpersonal relations); and outcome (such as satisfaction and post-discharge well-being and health) and suggests improvements in these domains. The paper illuminates that previous literature has mainly captured negative experiences of acute care by persons with mental health problems, and suggests diverting the focus to the best practices and to seek inspiration from other fields of research. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: Attending to the improvement and development of different parts of the acute care might be an important step in improving experiences of persons with mental health problems. For example, improving resource allocation systems and facilities, emphasizing professionalism in encounters with these patients and systematically assessing patient satisfaction during and after visits are important areas that require attention. ABSTRACT: Aim The provision of acute care to persons with mental health problems is challenging due to difficulties in encountering this group and the vulnerability of these persons. Understanding this group's experiences with acute care is thus an important endeavour. The purpose of this review was to critically and systematically identify and assess previous research on experiences of acute care by persons with mental health problems, guided by Donabedian's structure-process-outcome framework (Prospero ID: CRD42019116652). Method and results An integrative literature review was performed, resulting in the identification of 43 studies. The search was conducted using five electronic databases: Web of Science Core, PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL and PsycINFO. Discussion The review revealed that patients experienced structure components such as setting, staff and resources in a predominantly negative way. A predominately negative picture also emerged of the process components, where, for example, communication and interpersonal relations were represented by negative experiences, with limited positive experiences reported. The outcome components, related to patients' satisfaction and their well-being after discharge, were also predominantly experienced negatively. Implications for practice Using Donabedian's framework of structure, process and outcome allowed us to systematize the literature reviewed, to identify the research gaps and to suggest ways forward for the field's development.