Developing teambuilding and

leadership skills using problem

solving activities.

Costello J1 Cooke M1.Wong A,

& Chen MA2.(SIT), De Silva

V2.Faculty support (SIT), Lee I,2

Faculty support. 1 University of Manchester, UK, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work. 2

Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), Singapore.

The students

An introduction to palliative and

supportive care: exploring death

and dying

Dr John Costello

Background

• Teamwork and care provision in hospitals

throughout the world is influenced by effective

teamworking (Chang et al 2009).However, there is limited

evidence of teamworking and leadership skills

being taught using activity based approaches in

undergraduate curricula. Evidence suggests that

teambuilding skills can lead to greater job

satisfaction and improved communication in

hospital nursing staff (Amos et al 2005, Ratta & Della 2015).The

need to educate nurses and to develop

teambuilding skills prior to their engagement in

clinical activity is an important challenge for nurse

educators (Kalisch et al 2015).

AIM

• To develop teambuilding and leadership

skills using 6 structured problem solving

activities conducted outside the classroom.

The module

The module featured lectures and seminars on

team work, leadership and change

management.

Day three was organised as an outdoor

activity day which involved 6 groups of

students (10 per group) undertaking 6 problem

solving activities led by a leader nominated by

the group.

• The activity day involved sixty nursing

students on the B.Sc (hons), nursing

practice degree programme in

Singapore who were undertaking their

2nd year Leading and Managing

Change module.

Briefing

• Each group were briefed before the activity

began and informed of the aims and

objectives, as well as the use of resources

made available to them for the task. They

were given 10 mins to discuss and 20

minutes to complete each activity. The

group then moved on to the next activity.

Activities

• Activities included a casualty evacuation,

managing an infection outbreak, and

organising care on a stroke unit. Two

activities were nurse education based board

games.

Assessment

• Each activity was coordinated and assessed

by a faculty member who briefed, observed

and debriefed each group, providing

constructive feedback using a scoring card.

Marks were awarded for successfully

completing the task, demonstration of

teambuilding skills, displaying leadership

qualities, group cohesion, effective

communication and group sensitivity.

Adherence to time and safe and successful

completion of the task were included in the

overall group assessment.

• Student evaluations were very positive, feedback

used adjectives such as stimulating, enjoyable,

rewarding, fun and valuable for staff and students.

• Retrospective seminar group discussions indicated

evidence of integration of team building theory

and practice.

• Leadership issues were discussed and linked to

theory lectures and seminars.

• Assessment pass rates for the module were higher

than previous years when no activities occurred.

Educational implications

• The so what question?

The benefits of team building

activity. The teacher’s

perspective

• Integration of theory and practice and enhanced

student engagement in education using innovative

educational approaches to teaching and learning.

• Activity and problem solving stimulates learning,

increases knowledge retention and improves group

cohesion and communication.

• Raises awareness and knowledge of the impact of

teamwork on group cohesion.

The need for teambuilding

• Team building helps student’s develop

interpersonal skills involving tolerance,

empathy, understanding, active listening

and forgiveness.

• Leadership is a key issue and being the

leader of a group involves responsibility.

• Supporting the leader also involves

obligations and responsibility.

Student benefits

• Students loved it, it was FUN (well the

majority had fun)! It was preferred to

lecture based teaching.

• The students enjoyed working in groups.

• They were actively engaged in teaching and

learning.

• There was a sense of achievement and a

prize at the end for the fastest team

Take home message

• The educational preparation of nurses needs

to consider their future role as team

members and leaders. Singapore nursing

raises a number of challenges for educators.

• First, it is different from the UK and other

countries. The key issue to focus upon is not

just information giving but development of

human skills.

Thank you for listening

Any questions, comments or

observations to share?

John Costello e mail John.Costello

@manchester.ac.uk

References • Amos M.A., Hue J. & Herrick C.A. (2005) Impact of team building on communication

and job satisfaction of nursing staff. Journal for Nurses in Staff Development. 21,1,10-16

• Chang, W.Y., Ma JC., Chiu, H.T. Lin, K.C. & Lee P.H. (2009) Job satisfaction and

perceptions of quality of patient care, collaboration and teamwork in acute care hospitals

Journal of Advanced Nursing 65, 9, 1946–1955.

Kalisch BJ. Aebersold M., Mclaughlin M., Tschannen D & Lane S. (2015) An

intervention to improve nursing teamwork using virtual simulation Western Journal of

Nursing research 37,2,164-179.

• Ratta, CB. Della MS. (2015) Flipping the Classroom With Team-Based Learning in

Undergraduate Nursing Education. Nurse Educator 40,(2) 71-74.