Social networks and knowledge transfer mechanisms in the newborn intensive care unit

Abstract

This research focuses on knowledge transfer in clinical nursing environments. In Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU), nurse team was the main body to provide healthcare services. The efficiency of nurses’ knowledge transfer will greatly affect the reliability of clinical nursing judgment and the effectiveness of nursing practice. There are a lot of models and solutions focus on knowledge transfer in medical service provider settings, but a few research consider the knowledge transfer process within the nursing team. The NICU nurse team consists of the nurses with multidisciplinary background. The knowledge distance between nurses, the complex clinical environment, cause the challenge of transferring knowledge within the NICU nurse team. In order to improve the knowledge transfer efficiency, this research aim to develop a Knowledge Transfer (KT) framework in NICU team. The study investigated social network (SN) and knowledge transfer mechanisms (KTM) to support clinical practice. Use Social Network Analysis (SNA) and SECI model, to form a KT framework. This study consists of five chapters. Chapter one introduced the research, including the background of topic, the aim of research, the research design and methodology, the knowledge contribution, the paper structure. Chapter two, reviewed the related research, summarized claims and analyzed the gap. Moreover, discussed the key concepts in the area of KT, KTM, SN, and NICU to form the raw conceptual KT framework in NICU. In chapter three, presented the research methodology and design. In this research, used case study strategy and quantitative research lead by SNA, qualitative research lead by experts’ interview. The main finding and discussion of the research output were presented in chapter four. In the last chapter, reviewed the research aim and main outcomes. Discussed the limitations of this study.