Group Dynamics: the Nurses Work - Essay Example

Group Dynamics Affiliation Introduction Group dynamics entails how two or more individuals relate in a group environment including their communication framework. A group is set of individuals who have constant interaction and communication. Group members share joint efforts and universal solidarity with an aim of achieving certain objectives. A team is set of groups which include individuals brought together by a collection of matching abilities needed to achieve given objectives. Team members work on account of high level inter-reliance, power/leadership role sharing, accountability, rewards and objectives. They help generate group synergy, which lead to increased accomplishment above the aggregate of individual efforts. This paper presents a team outline of the principal team within which I work. It also provides a description and analysis of the roles of the team members with reference to the Meredith Belbin team/group work role theory as discussed in taught sessions and supporting reading materials. This paper also presents an ongoing reflection of my own teamwork skills which recognises my individual strengths and weakness. It presents a reflection on my strengths and weaknesses in terms of communication with others including giving and receiving feedback. Finally, it presents a conclusion of the findings from literature and discussion underlined. Team outline A team outline implies to an arrangement of a single team or multifaceted team structure. According to Gillespie and Chaboyer (2009), a team outline is a fundamental part of a teamwork development. A suitably outlined nursing team entails a proper framework that facilitates a characteristic care plan, intervention and treatment. Additionally, it entails a useful integration of operational communication, leadership, situation evaluation and joint efforts. According to Nancarrow, Moran, Enderby, Freeman and Dixon (2009), an appropriate team outline, in a nursing environment, can advance joint effort by integrating a selected leader, which includes the patient, care givers and the family. Over and above join efforts helps every group member to take part in the activities of the team and further fosters accountability in member’s actions. Gillespie and Chaboyer (2009) claim that everyone in a teamwork setting must identify their team outline in order to help plan and achieve the set goals or objectives. Principal team outline within which I work The following is an outline of the principal team within which I work: nurse manager, director of nurses, patient, physician, doctor, pharmacists, clinical care providers, staff nurses, ethics committees and clinical IT working teams. These team members normally work jointly in order to deliver a high quality services and achieve positive end results (Kalisch, Lee & Rochman 2009). For example, the nurses work under the direction of the nurse manager and director of nurses. Also, the nurse works hand in hand with the physicians, doctors, pharmacists, clinical care providers, clinical IT working teams and fellow staff nurses. Over and above, care providers collaborate with the ethics committees and patients and their family in the case of ethical and legal issues of healthcare. Role of team members with reference to Belbin Team Role Theory One of the fascinating thought was on the significance of teamwork roles in functional and winning teams. Belbin (1993) argued that people in teams are inclined to taking varying team roles. Belbin established this as “a tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way” (Belbin 1981, p. 61). Belbin presents 8 roles that help explain the team members functional and team role in the path of achieving team success. These roles, includes chairman/coordinator, shaper, plant, monitor-evaluator, resource investigator, implementer, team worker and the completer/finisher. 1. Chairman/coordinator Chairman is one of the initial roles that Belbin coined before changing it to coordinator which further helped to describe it. The coordinator is a permanent role played by a team leader that entails provision of positive forms of motivation to team members (Belbin 1981). In my principal team outline, the nurse manager plays the role of coordinator of the team. He or she helps manage every activity in the team. The nurse manager is composed, self-assured and a good listener. He or she appreciates the strengths and weaknesses of every team member and provide everyone with a chance to explore their full potentials, including guiding them all the way through to achieving individual and team objectives. However, a coordinator may be easy to manipulate where some team members may be allocated duties on the basis of preferences (Belbin 1993). 2. Shaper The shaper is extra uncompromising as compared to his or her leader corresponding team leader – nurse manager. According to Belbin (1981), a shaper is known to be both intolerant and confrontational, but he or she finally gets the work completed. In my principal team, the nurse director plays the role of a shaper, who always has a burning desire to get things going and keeps pushing the team members to beat deadlines and meet set targets or goals. Regardless of instances where a shaper can get into disagreements or arguments with team members, he or she helps the team to overcome challenges and achieve success. 3. Plant The plant plays the role of innovation and always strives to come up with solutions to problems facing the team. According to Belbin (1993), a plant is known for his or her original ideas and innovative idea generation in a team. In my principal team, the staff nurses play the role of a plant in a team. They are equally intelligent, knowledgeable and have a high level of imagination. However, they have a weakness of attaching personal attributions to their ideas and may sometimes pay no attention to useful details and set of rules. 4. Monitor-evaluator The monitor-evaluator plays a significant role of evaluating and analysing possible alternatives and comes up with potential decisions by identifying inaccuracies or errors in the team’s outline before creating responsibilities. In my principal team, the ethics committees work as the monitor-evaluator, given that they help monitor the actions of the team members on the account of legal and ethical considerations. According to Belbin (1981), they do not attach any subjective decisions and may be viewed as agnostic team members. One of the weaknesses of the monitor-evaluator is that he or she is short of motivation to drive other team members into success. 5. Resource investigator The resource-investigator plays the role of team information provider. They have the capacity to acquire valuable information from outside sources that help the team achieve success. According to Belbin (1993), they are great communicators and have an immense ability to interact with one another. In my principal team, they include the clinical IT working teams, who are fast to respond to new challenges and provide prospective options. However, the resource-investigator has a weakness where his or her interests diminish subsequent to the end of an excitement of a new project. 6. Implementer Belbin (1981) had initially termed this group as company workers, but altered it to implementer which stands for the team members who convert ideas into material working practice. In my principal team, they include clinical care providers and staff nurses, who would pick on projects that other team members abandon in order to meet the unaccomplished needs of the team. They are well organised, disciplined and self-oriented (Batenburg, Walbeek & van, Maur in der 2013). However, they have a weakness of lack of flexibility and are known to sometimes push unproven thoughts. 7. Team worker The team-worker entails the fabric that puts together the team, especially help in solving problems and fostering team spirit. In my principal team the team-worker entails the physician, pharmacists or the nurse. According to Belbin (1993), the team-worker works hard to restore the unity of the team especially its social aspects. However, they have a weakness of making urgent judgments when faced with intricate decision making processes and other team members may easily influence them. 8. Completer/finisher The completer also known as the finisher plays the role of completing started projects of the team. They are keen to attention and never miss the set deadlines. In my team, they include doctors, who carry out their duties in an orderly and detailed manner (Belbin 1993). They, however, have a weakness of being apprehensive and concerned about insignificant details and may fail to release the fine details of a given project. Reflective account Reflection forms a significant part of formal evaluation where nurses can learn from their own activities and further embrace the value of evaluating individual practice and performance. According to Johns and Burnie (2013), when nurses learn from individual practice, they end up developing the proficiency needed to execute decisions in the future with regard to identifying weaknesses and fostering their strengths. Davies (2012) claims that learning through reflection has a number of benefits. However, it is intricate to establish these benefits and further to integrate them to knowledge created. According to Jones and Jones (2013), learners who ignore reflective practice and depend on factual and research-directed studies only gain trivial knowledge. This reflective account utilises John’s (1995) structural model of reflection to point toward a specific scenario that I came across in my career as a student nurse. The main objective of this reflection model by John (1995) is to advance the required practice via a student’s awareness and knowledge of the past encounters. I have chosen to reflect on a critical incident in practice where I weighed my strengths and weaknesses. John’s (1995) structured model of reflection enables me to develop a chain of thoughtful prompts and reminders that present individual learning from the activity. This model reflects on the basis of the following patterns of knowing: aesthetic, personal, empirical, ethical and reflexive aspects of the context. Context At the time of my placement, I was introduced to a male patient who endured incontinence, which was brought about by an inflamed bladder and prostate. I immediately started managing his problem of incontinence. However, the patient was uneasy and developed movement problems. I helped the patient fix the urethral catheter which would help him manage the involuntary passing of urine. After 3 hours, the patient began complaining of leaking at the drainage bag. I was anxious about it and informed the resident nurse about it; who helped me comprehend the exact problem. According to Reeves, Zwarenstein, Goldman, Barr, Freeth, Koppel and Hammick (2010), working as a team helps student nurses in overcoming problems while on duty. I tightened the drainage valves while communicating understandingly with the patient, and he became pacified and comfortable. Additionally, Valle and Witt (2001) argues that teamwork should be an individual initiative in order to achieve general success. Aesthetic According to John’s (1995), aesthetic action entails an individual’s reaction towards a specific case. In my situation, I was at first cool, calm and collected when assisting the patient with fixing the urethral catheter which would ease him from embarrassment and discomfort. However, deep down my heart I felt doomed to failure on account of fear of complications associated with the urethral catheter. I was deeply worried that the patient would develop some complications, such as pain or leaking that would lead to infections. However, when I began communicating with the patient while fixing the leaking problem, he became calm and comfortable. Personal My individual response towards this event is that I am happy to have worked as a team. I was also happy to learn the value of communication to a nervous and uncomfortable patient. I was also impressed to get the patient’s feedback regarding our interaction which made me believe that I had solved his problem. The patient made me know that I was doing things the right way, further giving me confidence in my clinical skills. Empirical According to John’s (1995) empirical knowledge is acquired through participation and practical example. In my case, I would not have learned about the value of communicating with a patient and much more the need for teamwork in a clinical setting until when I found myself in a situation that called for joint efforts and communication with a patient. I also learned that in the case I communicated poorly, I would not have understood the patient’s situation. I would have neither made the resident nurse understand my predicament nor solve the problem the patient was experiencing. According to West (2012), teamwork entails proper communication and interaction in order to reach a team success. Many nurses are dissatisfied with jobs that do not embrace proper communication and interaction among team members which pushes them to give their jobs (Decker, Harris-Kojetin & Bercovitz 2009). Ethics John’s (1995) indicates that ethics is a subject of being aware of the right or wrong when presented with particular cases of decision making. According to Nancarrow, Booth, Ariss, Smith, Enderby and Roots (2013), a professional practitioner must be aware of the right actions to undertake and further embrace the need for teamwork when presented to intricate decision making instances. I feel as if I failed to prepare the patient enough before introducing the urethral catheter which led to the patient’s nervousness. Reflexivity John’s (1995) point out that reflexivity is the process that allows individuals to locate, deal with or settle challenges between their aspirations and real practice. This is with an intention of achieving extra pleasing results. In this regard, I will focus on the learning experience I acquired from working with the patient and the resident nurse during my placement. Despite my initial worry, I believe that I have developed confidence and added knowledge in managing patients with such a problem – incontinence and fixing urethral catheter. I have realised that I can learn from my mistakes through reflection. Conclusion In conclusion, this paper has discussed the subject of group dynamics which entails individuals, groups and teamwork. It is apparent that team members achieve tangible results when working as a team as compared to undertaking individual efforts. Also, it is apparent that every individual has different strengths and weaknesses that can be managed better in teamwork as compared to individual endevours. Therefore, everyone in a team takes specific roles and duties which lead to the success of a general team and it members. Also, this paper has outlined the value of a reflective account which entails the ability to learn from individual practice and past experiences. Ultimately, learning through reflective practice helps to learn about individual strengths and weaknesses through communication and further the subject of giving and receiving feedback. References Batenburg, R, Walbeek, W & van, Maur, W, in der 2013, Belbin role diversity and team performance: is there a relationship? Journal of Management Development, vol. 32 no. 8, pp. 901-913. 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Valle, M & Witt, LA 2001, The moderating effect of teamwork perceptions on the organizational politics--job satisfaction relationship. The Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 141, no. 3, pp. 379–388. West, MA 2012, Effective teamwork: practical lessons from organisational research, 3rd edition, BPS Blackwell-Wiley, Chichester. Read More