Communicating With Uncooperative Members

This article is about good communication with duty mates and how a leader can tame uncooperative members of the group. Nurses Announcements Archive Article

Communicating With Uncooperative Members

As nursing students, our duties make the best part of our stay in the college, and being with group mates who are very out-of-this-world really freaks us out, especially when we have a case presentation, a thesis for the research, and to make it worst, you are the group leader! So here's the deal to conquer your group mates' stubborn attitudes.

They have types, of course:

The Friendenemy (Friend or enemy?)

Enjoys with you and very reliable during "inuman" or "happy-happy" moments, and definitely when you have a BP apparatus and thermometer that she "consciously" forgets every time your having your duties.

How to fight it!

If you are the group leader, set up rules for all of you to follow,and have some penalties for a change, like 1 peso for every loss of one apparatus, your group can use the collected money for special purposes, like paying for a compulsory contribution. If you are not the group leader, confront the friendenemy and tell her politely that it's not good to borrow every time you're having duties, after all, the clinical instructor will check your things beforehand.

The "OC-OC" (Obsessive-compulsive)

The obsessive-compulsive group mate of yours who wants to finish the thesis and the case presentation paper works "STAT"! The catch: She wants you to do the same!

How to tame!

Talk to her in polite manner that cramming is very unacceptable for her other group mates and humility is important. If you are the group leader, make up a printed schedule for our group so that time can be maximized for all of you to do the thesis or case presentation, this will lessen the stress brought by the "OC-OC".

The last-2-minutes group mate

The exact opposite of the "OC-OC", she loves to send the whole group into " Panic land" when she did the 20-pages drug study and nursing history, two minutes before your case presentation.

How to cease her!

Have her work the not-so-important parts of the case presentation or thesis, like the introduction, acknowledgment and the table of contents. Make her think by being frank to her and tell her that being late is not good, especially if she will be a registered nurse in the near future.

The Know-it-all girl/ boy

She's / He's full of confidence (extremely full of it!) and gets really upset and mad when her opinions and suggestions were not done or praised. She/ He also gets mad when she's/ he's not getting the case presentation part that she/he desires, like having the Pathophysiology and Anatomy lecture rather than getting the 3-paged drug study part. Everyone else just favors her due to fear.

How to fix it!

Make her feel like she's not the only Ms./Mr. Perfect in your group. If you are the group leader, make a "draw-lots" for your tasking. Fold pieces of paper with your tasks written in each of it, and make them pick one of these. So that they cannot complain about what they got. Equality is the real deal here, and as they say, majority rules!

The Mushroom

The one who shows up during peak hours of duty (graveyard duty) and takes her absences during the day of your case presentation (with her part as the Pathophysiology and Anatomy lecturer) without prior notice.

How to stop it!

Divide the tasks in your group without hoping him/her to come during the presentation,or better yet, divide his/her tasks to the rest of the group so that in case she/ he takes the absent mode again,your group will not panic and your ready for the presentation.

There you have it! Once you encounter these freaks, you better watch out and never let them ruin your precious duty memories!

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chellieRN

About chellieRN, BSN, RN

I am a Registered Nurse and currently having my IVT training. During college, I am the group leader, my members are always very uncooperative so I decided to think and formulate ideas on how I can bear with their bad attitudes. It worked actually.

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Specializes in taking a break from inpatient psychiatric nursing.

Great. It's also smart to make clear to group members, at the first meeting, that the project will include an explanation of which member is responsible for which part. For example, "For our presentation about MS, John researched and will report on symptoms, Tanisha researched and will report on treatments, Pedro designed the power point, and I coordinated the group and wrote the introduction and conclusion."

In this way, your instructor and other classmates will see who dropped the ball, and who carried out their part of the project. And, each group member will either meet the challenge, or it will be clear to the instructor that they did not.

Even though this is tough when the entire group receives the same grade ...

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A great leader ALWAYS self reflects first when a situation seems wrong, negative or turns that way. To automatically take a direction to change others is to be nothing but arrogant and the so called leader will never win over the cooperation all members of the group. Using psychological munipulation is wrong and will fail. Sure positive basic rules are a great way to start any group endevor but the basic rules MUST come from the group and not just the leader since the so called leader is nothing but a facilitator up to the point of gaining the trust of the group. Trust is earned NOT dictated, manipulated or given away free! Good luck, because you will be the only nurse in the department after the rest quit ! ! !

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Specializes in taking a break from inpatient psychiatric nursing.

Ouch.

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Specializes in ICU, ER, OR, FNP.

chellie,

luckily, you’ll soon graduate, pass boards, and begin working as a nurse. you’ll then realize that all of that group nonsense was a complete waste of your precious education time and you were cheated. if you were homeschooled from birth and entered college at 18, then all is not lost; the experience dealing with a group and its group problems will help you deal with future coworkers and patients.

outside of academia, there is no such thing as group nursing. try this – during the nclex ask the person next to you what she thinks the right thing is to do in your scenario. you can also try this – tell your bon you don’t really want to be the only person responsible for your patient’s welfare – you want to sign up for a “group license”. or – you could ask the nurse manager in your new rn job “which group is mine…” ok - most important, when your unit manager wants to give you a sweet raise because you are super nurse - don’t forget to take that raise and spilt up amongst your group.

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Specializes in Programming / Strategist for allnurses.

An oldie but goodie. A must read for all students.

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