Discussion: Creating, Developing, and Leading Effective Teams

Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.
—Henry Ford

A critical skill for all nurse managers is the ability to create, develop, and lead effective teams. When people are part of an effective and well-functioning team, they are more productive and have a stronger commitment to the organization. Nurse managers have a responsibility to create teams that fulfill functional needs within their units or departments. These can include leadership teams, ad hoc project teams, or primary work teams.

As a nurse manager, there is a variety of ways that you can enhance team functioning. The first step is developing the structural elements of the team and then designing the team with the appropriate membership. Just as you must critically examine each application during the employment process, so will you critically examine the skills and attributes of each employee before appointing him or her to a collective team.

In this week’s Discussion, you lay the groundwork for creating and developing a team for your unit, department, or health care setting. You also identify leadership strategies that you could employ to increase the team’s organizational effectiveness.

To prepare

• Review Chapter 5, “The Art of Effectively Facilitating Processes” from the course text, From Management to Leadership: Strategies for Transforming Health Care. Carefully examine the section, “Essential Elements of a Team” to identify the six steps of creating an effective team.
• Consider a team you might create for your current organization or one with which you are familiar. For example, is there a project to be accomplished or a problem to be solved? Perhaps there is a need for a leadership team within your unit or department?
• Identify the purpose or goal for your team. Then, reflect on the following questions:
  • What type of team would you create (leadership, ad hoc, or primary work team) to accomplish this purpose or goal? What are the benefits or disadvantages of creating this type of team?
  • What staff members would you want on this team? Why? How could their skill sets and positions make them effective team members?
• Explore this week’s Learning Resources to identify leadership strategies you might employ before, during, and after the team-building phase. For example, what leadership strategies might influence synergy among team members while also increasing the effectiveness of the team?

Post a description of the team you would create, including the purpose or goal the team would serve, the team type, and the specific skills each member would contribute as well as their job positions. Describe at least two leadership strategies you could implement to help this team effectively achieve its purpose or goal.

 

Required Readings

Manion, J. (2011). From management to leadership: Strategies for transforming health care (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Chapter 5, “The Art of Effectively Facilitating Processes” (pp. 179–242)This chapter describes the many components that make up the facilitating process. Some of these elements include empowerment, authority, resolutions, and negotiation.

Chapter 6, “Getting Results” (pp. 243–282)The main points of this chapter are the components that contribute to effective teamwork. The author lists the benefits and pitfalls of proactive behavior, group decision making, and problem solving.

Beeson, J. (2011). Build a strong team. Leadership Excellence, 28(2), 15.  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Beeson’s article focuses on the importance of building a structured team. He provides five steps that leaders can implement in the workplace to create a strong team that benefits the whole workplace.

Calendrillo, T. (2009). Team building for a healthy work environment. Nursing Management, 40(12), 9–12.  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

In this article, Calendrillo states that skilled communication is the foundation for strong team building in clinical settings. When skilled communication has been mastered and used, quality patient care and healthy work environments are among the many results.

Pentland, A. (2012). The new science of building great teams. Harvard Business Review, 90(4), 60–70.  Retrieved from https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/pl/76756181/76756183/15ba87a24642f03cb8854352b1d046fc

This article addresses how communication is a key to team efficiency. The author provides three communication dynamics that were used by the teams that were most communicative.

Tasks:

• Advances in technology have fed the explosion of wearable devices and patient self-monitoring. How can nurses leverage this technology to promote healthy lifestyles and improved compliance with self-care and monitoring?
• There are vast quantities of consumer data available today. For example, every time you use your grocery store loyalty card, data about what you purchased is collected, analyzed, and saved. This data in the hands of population health professionals can contribute to the creation of healthy lifestyle programs. However, the same data in the hands of health insurance plans could lead to higher insurance costs of denial of insurance. Should there be regulations on how these consumer data are used?

Citations should conform to APA guidelines. You may use this APA Citation Helper as a convenient reference for properly citing resources or connect to the APA style website through the APA icon below.

By the end of the week, comment on at least two of your peers’ responses. You can ask questions or respond generally to the overall experience. Be objective, clear, and concise. Always use constructive language, even in criticism, to work toward the goal of positive progress. All comments should be posted to the Discussion Area.

  Please pay keen attention to the questions. Original work please

Details:

For this assignment, select one clinical practice issue that involves a specific medication. Using a Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) system, design a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) that would be embedded in the EHR at your site of practice. Your CDSS must connect with CPOE to include a medication. You must link these two applications within the design.

Directions:

Write a 1,000-1,250 word paper that provides the following:

1. Specific details of the clinical issue involving a specific medication

2. The rationale behind your design development.

3. A description of how this CDSS will be implemented and adopted by fellow clinicians.

4. An assessment of challenges and proposed solutions which might apply to this scenario (e.g., information loss, communication breakdown).

  

Review the following case study and complete the questions that follow. Submit your completed paper to Blackboard using the assignment link.

As a public health nurse at a free clinic, you are assessing and interviewing a 21-year-old woman who has come to the clinic because she doesn’t have any energy and hasn’t felt good in weeks. During the interview, you learn that she averages one meal per day, smokes up to two packs of cigarettes per day, and rummages through trash to find items she can sell to purchase food, snacks, and cigarettes. She admits to using street drugs every once in a while when she can find someone who will share with her. She admits her life is a mess and she doesn’t know how to make it better.

· What data can you gather based on available client information?

· What questions should you ask yourself while interviewing this client?

· During planning, how can you, as the nurse, best assist this client?

· What are the potential strategies that would assist the client to a “better” life?

Your paper should be 2 pages in length, in APA format, typed in Times New Roman with 12-point font, and double-spaced with 1” margins. If outside sources are used, they must be cited appropriately.