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
done. I would say I was mostly informed, but there were definite
things that were set up that weren’t mentioned, that I did not know
anything about. It suddenly just appeared. That was at a little
frustrating, because as was said, it was then assumed that we knew
about it, because we were in the group together. We were the ones,
facing our department team. They were saying ‘well what is all this
about, where did this come from’ ‘We don’t know’. It was a little
difficult in that way” (FGR: 510-522). It would appear that the
perception existed that the internal flow of information was less
effective. “The information flow was not, it was what was lacking.
At that time information was not coming back to us” (FGR: 299-
301). If this perception was true, then it would need looking at for
future reference, but at the same time another perception also
existed. “All I can say is that we did our best, we knew it was
unfortunate but we did our best. But that certainly, I think our
communication with people outside the department was effective,
within the department there were just some little lags, where we
could have perhaps been more onto it” (Participant 3: 100-106).
So, some of the problems were known, but due to specific
circumstances, these could not have been attended to at that
particular time.
In conclusion, one could say that the team leader is the most
important person in a curriculum development team. The leader
can make or break the process, as he or she gives direction,
recognition for work done well, and supports the individual team
members.
On the other hand, the time aspect in any process can be critical, as
stakeholders are normally people, who are continuing with the
normal daily activities while taking on new tasks, and it is therefore
imperative that this aspect be considered well in any development
process. If people are under pressure to produce a product, that
has to meet the needs of various institutions and people, and feel
the pressure of work, feelings of anger and resentment could
develop quite easily. On a positive note though, Successful
communication could lead to feelings of satisfaction amongst the
stakeholders. “I thought the person who I was liasing with and who
was sending messages and so on, I though was well organized. The
timeframes were set by the time I got there. There was enough
time to read documents, but not too long that you would have lost
it before you went back” (Participant 6: 53-59). This demonstrates
the advantages of maintaining good time frames and good
communication processes for any process, and must be recognised
by the team leader as well.
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