Group projects

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I am starting this thread mostly to see what you all think of group projects. I'm very frustrated right now because I am stuck with a girl in ALL of my groups and she is slacking. (Nobody wanted her in their groups. I now know why. But my group accepted her because she came up and asked us.. how were we supposed to say no?!) Big time. We have many projects and I see this girl seven days a week. Maybe I'm just tired of that. Anyway, we have three projects due by the end of the semester. All worth over 25% of the final grade. She has been making excuses as to why her part never gets finished. We also have to schedule around her schedule as her boyfriend is more important than school. Frustrating. I'm tired of holding the team together. I'm exhausted actually. Any thoughts or similar experiences?

Specializes in ICU.

If talking with her isn't helping, you absolutely must talk to your instructor. If she isn't doing the work, she shouldn't get the credit nor the grade. May sound harsh but maybe it will be a wake up call when the group gets an A and she fails the project.

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Group projects are rough, I feel communication and a positive but assertive attitude is key.

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She needs to grow the h..... up. And put me in that group that HATES group projects!

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Transplant.

First of all, I absolutely *hate* group projects about 95% of the time. I had one experience in nursing school where I was stuck in a group (assigned randomly by the prof) that was comprised of me and the known slackers in the class (like, people who were close to failing). I'm usually calm and soft spoken, but the project was worth a large percentage of the grade and we were in danger of bombing it because the others were not doing anything. After attempting to nicely bring my concerns to them, I literally yelled at them in front of our entire clinical group about their laziness! This is HIGHLY unlike me-I'm usually very reserved and calm-but I simply told them that their laziness was unacceptable, I was done with their excuses, and that if they did not immediately complete their portion as described by the rubric I would take the issue to the nursing school dean!! They were completely shocked and my instructor actually said she would back up my statements to the dean if that ended up being the case. ALL parts of the assignment ended up being completed well :-)

I guess my point is that there is a time when you need to be really firm with group members and not accept their excuses (not that I totally advocate yelling). It is not fair that you are suffering for her laziness and she should be able to function decently in a group if she is going to be a professional soon.

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

I too am bitter over a group project, because most of us worked hard. This was years ago and I am now on faculty with the instructor. Her statement was that group projects are to teach team work and group dynamics. That is ok, if you are being GRADED on those. But if the sole grade is the summative work then it is not just, in my opinion. All I learned was to avoid certain people. Don't know what life lesson that provided.

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Working in groups is always challenging, because everyone has their own way of working to be successful; and its easy to get frustrated when you have to adjust your routine and often very stressful too.

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Thanks for the encouragement. I have been avoiding her and I think she knows I am upset. I am still taking the projects into my own hands and paying for it with absolutely no sleep this week. I guess I can sleep when I am dead, right?! ;) She did get caught today during clinical for her lack of motivation. We had clinical at the hospital until two. We get to post-conference to talk about the day and she goes to the instructor and goes "I have to go to clinical for public health, I am already late." The clinical instructor was going to talk to the other instructor and see why she, and only she, was double booked for clinical. (We are supposed to sign up for our public health clinical at the beginning of the semester.. She didn't realize that she would have less opportunities if she waited.) Needless to say, she will be hearing from both instructors as to why she is not completing her clinical guidelines for the semester! Karma? I think not.. it's more like PURE laziness!

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

At my school every time you did a group project you also submitted an evalaution of all the other members. Not everyone in the group got the same mark at the end.If you didn't do your share and do as good a job you got a lower grade than the others.

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I'm going to offer a slightly different take on this subject, I've found in life that 20% of the people do 80% of the work. There's also an adage that applies here: "Grant me the strength to change the things that I can, and the grace to accept the things that I can't." I'm not saying that it is bad advice to confront her but I wouldn't be surprised if she never seems to fully pull her weight, even if she improves.

I would be very surprised if I learned that your leadership at school won't notice the issue when you're evaluated. Part of the point of group work is group dynamics, including group members that don't do their share.

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This is what makes me hate group projects.

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