Meeting in session

Glimpses of a variety of meetings - a school faculty, a high school committee, a business men’s session, a committee of nurses - illustrate the fact that most of us work in groups from time to time. Two contrasting session are presented, as a small group of nurses attempts to solve the problem of adequate staffing for the hospital four to twelve shift. In each meeting the problem and the participants are the same. The differences are in general approach, attitude displayed, techniques used and results achieved. In the first meeting participants enact negative roles characteristic of individuals intent on their own feelings and problems. The supervisor is an impatient administrator; head nurses demand rigid interpretation of present rules. In the second meeting nurses assume the roles of co-operative group members interested in desirable solutions and sympathetically aware of each other’s feelings. Each member contributes, and her ideas receive thoughtful consideration. At the end the nurse-recorder sums up suggestions, and each person volunteers for work on one or more specific proposals.