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
Knapp and Lowe (2001:13) mentioned the fact, that the leader
could establish a solid team, and if the leadership is then
maintained, the team would be able to sustain itself over a period of
time. This fact is very important, because this process extended
over a period of 2 years. If the group was selected carefully, the
feeling of “being part of it” could have led to a very positive feeling
for the team members. “So we got that initial excitement and we
had those first couple of meetings, there were all sorts of people
and high up people and all sorts of people there. That was really
good and I think that we did do quite a lot of work in those first
couple of meetings” (FGR: 465-470).
The opposite would also have been true. If there was no teamfeeling,
this process would either have failed, or would have
extended into the next year. “I was head of staff development at
MIT at the time. And the deputy head of department asked me if I
would facilitate a lot of the meetings. So I was there as a person
who facilitated the getting together, facilitated the discussion, the
pulling together peoples thoughts and ideas as workshops
concluded. I think there is a further role that you play when you
take it on. It is more that being just a facilitator and that it to be
the critical fend” (Participant 7: 80-89). And also being part of a
very big group could have led to feelings of intimidation. “I think,
one thing that I found a bit difficult was the group initially was very
large and the membership was very difficult, it was quite daunting,
those first few meetings were almost frightening they were just so
big” (FGR: 233-237).
The aspect of time management was identified as the most
controversial of all. It was also not possible to find any literature to
underpin this section, as this aspect of curriculum development
seemed to have not been identified as a probable problem area in
developing new curricula.
“So no, I think with the time constraints with my own job, I think
that we were well consulted” (Participant 2: 159-161). And even
more positive: “Well I felt that when we went into the meetings that
they were quite structured and from my point of view, I felt that we
always either achieved what we set out to or if something new came
up that was an issue, that we had a way forward to address is. So I
was actually quite pleased” (Participant 3: 109-115). And: “Yeah, I
thought the time was managed well. I struggled with the time
commitments, just as I think we all did. Sometimes it did not get
the priorities that it may have deserved, in terms of what was going
on here or whatever. I was blown away, actually I still am, when
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