Group work yuck@!

[mommywithplenty]

I absolutely hate group work! I know the program I'm going into has a bunch of group projects. My main issue is only one or two person will work their best while the other people feel they can slack off or even worse where one person takes over and you can't put your input in without getting shot down right away... How do I over come.

[zoey88]

i generally dont like group work either but nursing is a career which revolves around group work you have to interact with patients, doctors, fellow nurses and assistants. you can always try being a leader of your group and dividng up the work evently so every1 has to do their fair share. ive tried this with some projects and its worked out pretty well. good luck =]

[healthstar, BSN, RN]

I hate group work too. 1 person does most of the work while the rest talk crap about other classmates, knowing that they are the ones failing classes. This used to happen to me all the time: the presentation is due the next day and 2-3 people email me their work at 1:00 am.I was awake but I was not going to waste my time and fix their time issues. Told the instructor that they emailed me last minute, expecting me to do their work at 1:00 am and we got all the points. Sometimes people need to learn the lesson the hard way. Now I only choose hard working students to be in my group.

[EricJRN, MSN, RN]

It sure is difficult to function as a group with some of the challenges that you mention, but try to look at these projects as great practice for the interactions that you'll have in nursing once you graduate and go to work. While I'm very happily employed, I think every place - to some extent - has these extremes of personality, like the overachiever, the slacker who just tries to skate by, the loud type, and the shy one who never really gets heard.

Especially in big hospitals today, there is sort of this return to the team nursing concept from years past. On my unit during one shift, the care of one baby could easily involve more than half a dozen nurses, most of whom have very specialized functions. With each unique function comes unique priorities, which often run in conflict with the priorities of the rest of the baby's care team.

Although it won't be fun, the flexibility and the communication skills that you learn from a group project could be a big benefit in the future.

ETA: Somehow I didn't see zoey88's reply. I didn't mean to beat a dead horse with the whole "get used to it" thing. :)

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

Unfortunately that's how it is :/

And the rationale for doing group work in school is because in nursing, you work as a team - you will always be working and collaborating with others; however, I've come to find that academically there are more slackers than when you're out there working. At least in my experience.

I hated my group work projects in school. There would always be at least one individual who wouldn't do their fair share. I would try to choose people I know would do a good job but some instructors would just automatically assign you to a group, saying "in the real world you do not get to pick who you work with"...which is true, but ugh!

[lillymom]

It depends on the set up for me. I have had instructors that wanted us to work together so they would put 4 in a group and say one of you do contraindications, one does adverse reactions, one does indications and dosages, etc, and they give different grades based on how your part is. You are still expected to work together and help one another and make smooth transitions to different subjects but the actual work and grade is seperate.