Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
really commend MIT for doing that. Because often there was not a
lot of attendance. Sometimes there was. It sort of came in a bit of a
dribble really. But the fact that they came, and they kept repeating
themselves. They kept asking for feedback. They kept providing
opportunities for people to see them and say ‘yes this is what we
want’ ‘yes this is what we need’. Wow that is fantastic, it really is”
(Participant 8: 139-151). This process of providing information to
people also served as motivation to commence the process and
work on the new curriculum. “I think we are really looking forward
to being involved in the changes” (Participant 1: 37-39).
It was sometimes necessary to ask the curriculum development
team to discuss certain issues in the development team only, and
once a final draft was available, to discuss that with the rest of the
people involved. This is a means of getting the team focussed on
working towards completing the final product, and not getting
sidetracked by constantly talking to other people about the topic
under discussion, thereby hindering the progress of the whole
process. “But we were also told not to discuss anything outside the
curriculum development team which made it difficult for us” (FGR:
279-281). This sometimes led to negative feelings, but at the same
time, some stakeholders appreciated this “focussing” and
“progression” of the whole process. “I was engaged as much as
you, and I always felt that when I got there, it was ……..lets get on
with it, lets focus and I found like that day when we did all that bits
of paper and we could do this and we could do that. That was a
huge day and the facilitator; they had an outside facilitator I think.
To have that outside facilitation was great, because it created
neutrality and against competing needs. And there were competing
needs in the room at times, and you certainly sensed that”
(Participant 8: 319-329).
However, the stakeholders doubted that it was always possible to
have a consensus decision. “But it is very difficult to get some sort
of consensus in such a large organisation in such a short period of
time. I think sometimes, people have to be up front maybe and just
say, ‘look we have got to make this decision’, instead of going
through process of appearing that we all had a bit of input and we
are going to discuss it” (FGR: 577-583). The difficulty of reaching
consensus was also mentioned by another focus group participant,
who said “I think it goes out there, it would have been a good
decision we made, and yes we have to consult wider, no we can’t
seek consensus but it is a possibility and ultimately the decision is
going to be made by the people based on the ideas of the
consultation and the constraints that they know about” (FGR: 633-
369).
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