An evaluation of shared mental models and mutual trust on general medical units: implications for collaboration, teamwork, and patient safety.

Interprofessional collaboration is a cornerstone of safe patient care. Researchers surveyed inpatient nurses and physicians and found discordant perceptions of each others' roles as well as lower levels of trust in the other profession when compared to their own. Fostering a shared mental model and mutual trust are core components of teamwork training programs like TeamSTEPPS.