Mark Siemon was given the opportunity to present his research on the difference in team climate between registered nurses (RNs) who work with state-certified community health workers (CHWs), and RNs who work with non-state-certified CHWs. His presentation, titled “State Certification of Community Health Workers and Nurses Perception of Team Climate”, was on the first day of The International Rural Health and Rural Nursing Research Conference held at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana on July 29 – 31.
Siemon used SurveyMonkeyⓇ, an online survey development cloud, to develop an internet-based survey called Team Climate Inventory (TCI). The TCI was distributed nationally using a technique called snowball sampling where study subjects who received the survey directly can then recruit additional subjects from among their acquaintances. Study participants completed a questionnaire about their team’s climate and demographic questions about themselves and their organizations.
Siemon explains the implications of his research: “Decreased federal and state funding for health programs in many states has contributed to a decrease in public health services in many communities, especially in rural areas. This research adds information on one factor of organizational change that may assist in developing innovative policies for health care delivery reform for rural communities.”
“Registered nurses are the largest part of the professional health care workforce; their ability to collaborate and work with community health workers is critical to the integration of community health workers into existing health care organizations,” Siemon states.