Julie Snow had been the director of nursing for a small community hospital for only 1 week
before she learned firsthand that nurses, nursing assistants, and secretaries on one of the medical-
surgical units were constantly in conflict. For example, nursing assistants complained that nurses
assigned them to all the difficult patients and then were unwilling to help them when needed.
Conversely, the nurses contended that the nursing assistants were not answering call lights or
assisting with patients. The nurses also alleged that unit secretaries withheld information from
them when patients left the floor for lab tests or when their assigned patients needed assistance.
In turn, the secretaries said that nurses refused to help transcribe physician orders, schedule tests
and answer phones. This led the nurses to assert that the secretaries spent an inordinate amount
of time on personal tasks and expected nursing staff to do much of the unit secretaries work.
Snow also personally observed that nurses and nursing assistants usually attended to their own
assigned duties but did not help when others were swamped. She also learned, to her dismay, that
this unit had functioned this way for nearly 3 years, a situation her predecessor had ignored.
Relying on the concepts covered during our classes, please analyze the case in terms of the
following:
1. Describe the issues of the medical-surgical unit. Discuss the teams stage of development and
leadership issues youre seeing.
2. Outline a plan for team building in this unit. Indicate how you would proceed to unify the
efforts of team members. Draft a suitable unit mission statement that would help achieve
common goals.
3. Indicate the leadership style you believe Julie Snow could adopt to best facilitate the team
building process. Justify your answer. If Snow chooses not to address the problem, as did her
predecessor, predict the likely long-term consequences for the unit..
Julie Snow had been the director of nursing for a small community ho.pdf
1. Julie Snow had been the director of nursing for a small community hospital for only 1 week
before she learned firsthand that nurses, nursing assistants, and secretaries on one of the medical-
surgical units were constantly in conflict. For example, nursing assistants complained that nurses
assigned them to all the difficult patients and then were unwilling to help them when needed.
Conversely, the nurses contended that the nursing assistants were not answering call lights or
assisting with patients. The nurses also alleged that unit secretaries withheld information from
them when patients left the floor for lab tests or when their assigned patients needed assistance.
In turn, the secretaries said that nurses refused to help transcribe physician orders, schedule tests
and answer phones. This led the nurses to assert that the secretaries spent an inordinate amount
of time on personal tasks and expected nursing staff to do much of the unit secretaries work.
Snow also personally observed that nurses and nursing assistants usually attended to their own
assigned duties but did not help when others were swamped. She also learned, to her dismay, that
this unit had functioned this way for nearly 3 years, a situation her predecessor had ignored.
Relying on the concepts covered during our classes, please analyze the case in terms of the
following:
1. Describe the issues of the medical-surgical unit. Discuss the teams stage of development and
leadership issues youre seeing.
2. Outline a plan for team building in this unit. Indicate how you would proceed to unify the
efforts of team members. Draft a suitable unit mission statement that would help achieve
common goals.
3. Indicate the leadership style you believe Julie Snow could adopt to best facilitate the team
building process. Justify your answer. If Snow chooses not to address the problem, as did her
predecessor, predict the likely long-term consequences for the unit.
