The primary aim of the group is to enhance patient satisfaction and outcome. The group comprises of five nurses and other medical professionals such as physicians, nutritionists, clinical officers, and anesthetist. The group focused only on medical issues, and any member that tried to bring up issues that were not medical related was ignored. Moreover, the group had no goals and only came together if they had a medical case to attend to. The leader of the group, who is a doctor, was the only one allowed to communicate with the group about anything. The facial expressions of the group members most of the time showed bored people and fatigue. The only time that the group was happy was when the leader announced that the hospital had decided to give them bonuses after a job well done. Also, all the group members were serious about their work since they maintained eye contact when a task was being explained to them. One event that was significant to me is when there was an emergency case of a young girl who needed a quick operation. The group quickly swung into action after being called by their leader despite their shift being over. They all showed concern and kept on checking on the girl until she felt better.
Personal reactions and reflections
I was pleased with the work ethic of the group members. All the members understood their responsibilities and the role they played towards the success of the group. Also, all the members needed little or no supervision to do their duties and were even willing to work overtime to accomplish all their tasks. To all the members, the health and satisfaction of the patient was a priority. I learned that if persons were committed to what they do, they could work in a group that has little interaction among the team members and attains the goals the group is meant to achieve. I also learned that group recognition by the organization they work for is a motivation for the team to work harder and better. However, despite the success of the group, the group members were strangers to each other. They didn’t talk about issues that are outside work, and this made it difficult for those group members who could not work at their optimum because they had family issues.
Group phase or stage
Any group cannot be expected to perform well from when it was formed since a group has to phases. Therefore it takes time, support, and efforts of members to go through the stages and change from being strangers to a united nursing group that has common goals. The standard group phases are those developed by Bruce Tuckman, and the first one is forming, which requires a high degree of guidance from the supervisor, has unclear individual roles, and the processes usually are not well established. The second stage is storming, and it involves understanding how the decisions of the group are made, and it is during this stage that the purpose of the group is clear, but the relationships are blurry. The third stage is norming, and it is during this phase that relationships are well understood in the group, there is a commitment to the group goals, and the group begins to work to optimize its processes. The fourth stage is performing, and in this phase, the group is committed to delivering well, it focuses on being strategic and runs well with little oversight. In my opinion, the group didn’t focus on the third phase, which is the phase where relationships among the group members are understood. Also, since the group didn’t have clear goals, the group members didn’t know their boundaries and were afraid of overstepping boundaries. Lastly, medical professionals are usually overworked, and the little time they have, they would rather focus on the family instead of the group.