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
would take it from colleagues” (Participant 1, 59-64). That might
have been a reason for the successful progress of the process.
Buonocore (2004:172) stated that “effective leaders know how to
surround themselves with the right people as resources”. One of
the stakeholders indicated, that there was great appreciation for the
way in which the process was developed, and stakeholders involved
at all levels. “I was quite relieved that the infrastructure was being
set up. The principles that we talked about were being considered
but the structure was being set up, I would have liked to be on it
although, because some of it is boring, hard work, that we had to
do. There was a timeframe that was decided on and if we always
stopped at every period, and got input from people concerned”
(FGR: 249-257).
Boswell and Cannon (2005:3) quoted Cooper (2003) by stating that
“. . . leadership is therefore about influence, but also about
inspiration – those with inspiration inspire believe in ourselves”.
This seemed to have been the case in this project as well. “I think
we were just a brainstorming ideas team. I remember Waipuna
Lodge day, all the whole staff came it was quite a good idea. But by
that stage I think a lot of work had been done by a small group of
people, mainly Agatha 12 and Norman and other people in the
Department, and I couldn’t understand why people they thought
were on the curriculum development team and expected to know
stuff (laughs) but we should not have let what happened happen,
because it did” (FGR: 285-297). Cooperation between people, who
might be leaders in their own right, was also mentioned as an
enabling factor in this process. “I think that the other thing that
was an enabler of it was the fact that Agatha and I worked so well
together” (Participant 4: 100-102). This was also mentioned by
stakeholders who were not from the nursing profession. “I thought,
again as an outsider to the profession,. . . that it seemed to me to
be stunningly successful.” (Participant 7: 24-27). This process can
only be successful if the leader is supported by all, and the
curriculum development team members support the process as well.
“I think I felt huge gratitude at our lecturers because I know that
they were busy and for our clinical colleagues who made
contributions. I thought that if none of them had come to the party
we would have had a much less successful outcome” (Participant
3:35-40). The negative aspects of not supporting the leader of the
team, was also mentioned. “. . . and I don’t think you would have
had Sarah 13 turn up here and spend some time with us, if she was
not taking us seriously. Valuing your input, that you could get some
community organisation like us” (Participant 6: 71-74).
12 = Names changed.
13 = Name changed.
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