Conflict

This group is a formal task group, because we have specific functions, tasks and responsibilities in our job description. We are obligated to take care of the patients on the unit, and we set goals for the day that we accomplish. On this unit I have observed lots of teamwork interactions. I have seen task roles, Maintenance roles, and ineffective/non functional roles. Task roles refer to the actions of individuals that help move the project, decision, and tasks along. An example that I have seen of task roles is: During report, a nurse was telling us that she was having a hard time with a kids behaviors. She suggested that maybe we take this kid to the play room to give him something to do for a few hours on our shift. We were the information seeker, and she was the initiator. Maintenance roles refer to the actions of individuals that help preserve the relationships in a group. These are things like being friendly, warm, and responsive to others; accepting others and their contributions; regarding others by giving them an opportunity to contribute or be recognized. Relating to the same scenario with the kid and his behavior problems, we thanked the nurse giving report for the suggestion, and planned to implement it throughout the day. That would have put us as the role of harmonizer. Hindering roles refer to actions of individuals that hinder the group's process and progress. During our interaction with the kiddo, he decided that he didn’t want to leave to go to the playroom. He wanted to stay in his room and be bad. He was the blocker in this situation. He didn’t want to go play in the playroom, because it was more fun to boss us around. Despite the previous shift nurses advice, and our trying, we still lost to this kid. He was not willing to budge, so we decided to collaborate together with other nurses and tried to get this kid busy with doing something so that his boredom would stop his bad behaviors. At this point, we had formed the group, stormed (dealt with people that didn’t want to be in the group), normed (we were effective in coming up with the group, we all liked each other, and had a specific goal in mind), we were now at the performing stage in the group. We were all coming up with all kinds of ideas. We did brainstorming and came up with another idea to have child life come to his room with activities that would help curb his boredom. Child life was able to reach him! He told her some things he wanted to do, and she brought the stuff to his room. Then our group adjourned, we were happy with the results and got the task at hand done. The kid behaved for the rest of the shift. I don’t feel like there was only one leader of the group. I felt like we all stepped up and took charge to get this kid something to do. The type of decision making process that we used was Rational. We had a plan, stuck to it, and got the result that we wanted in the end.