Question: Bringing a Group Together You are the evening charge nurse of a medical unit. The staff on your unit has voiced displeasure in how requests for days off are handled. Your manager has given you the task of forming a committee and reviewing the present policy regarding requests for days off on the unit. On your committee are four LVNs, three CNAs, and fi ve RNs. All shifts are represented. There are three men among the group members, and there is a fairly broad range of ethnic and cultural groups. Tomorrow will be your fourth meeting, and you are becoming a bit frustrated because the meetings do not seem to be accomplishing much to reach the objectives that the group was charged to meet. The objective was to develop a fair method to handle special requested days off that were not part of the normal rotation. On your first meeting, you spent time getting to know the members and identified the objective.

Various committee members contacted other hospitals, and others did a literature search to determine how other institutions handled this matter. During the second meeting, this material was reviewed by all members. At the last meeting, the group was very contentious. In fact, several raised their voices. Others sat quietly, and some seemed to pout. Only the three men could agree upon anything. One LVN thought that the RNs were overly represented. One RN thought that the policy for day-off requests should be separated into three different policies-one for each classification. You are not sure how to bring this committee together or what, if any, action you should take.

ASSIGNMENT: Review the section in this chapter about how groups work. Write a one-page essay on what is happening in the group, and answer the following questions. Should you add members to the committee? Does your group have too many task members and not enough teambuilding members? What should be your role in getting the group to perform its task? What could be some strategies you could use that would perhaps bring the group together?