I have always been told that health care was a team sport, but I did not understand the intensity of it until I began pursuing my degree as a nurse. My first nursing class, evolution of nursing (NURS 212) thought us about everyone that is involved in a health care team for just one patient A team for one patient can include, doctors, nurses, nurse technicians, and specialist, such as a respiratory specialists. Everyone on this team must work together and communicate in an effective manner to provide the best care for a patient.  

I’m involved in a research study called the SMART study, where me and my team members work together towards one goal. There are several data collections tasks to complete, including: obtaining participants consent, measuring body circumference and hand grip strength. Each team member is assigned to one of these tasks to make the process as efficient as possible. We must communicate well with each in order to reduce the number of mistakes that can happen. If we did not communicate effectively, participants’ information would get confused with another’s, information on a participant’s form would be missing and we could possible miss out on recruiting new participants. This is why it is important to work well with your team members and communicate with them.  

It is important to treat everyone within your team with respect, for if you don’t you can lose valuable people. In a paper I wrote for my history class (Artifact 1) about Clara Barton and the sexism that she faced. After she established the first public school in New Jersey she lost control of it because local leaders did not see that it was fit for a woman to be in charge of a public institution. If she did not lose control, how much more could Clara Barton have done to help that community? Therefore it is important to recognize and respect every member on our team. Each team member is valuable in a unique way and should be treated accordingly. 

As a Peer advisor we are the leaders around our campus. Our main job is during summer orientation, helping new students transition to college. During the summer we help new students sign up for classes, give tours, and answer any questions they may have. Though our main job is during the summer, we are always available to help students. There are seven other peer advisors and we must be able to work well together to provide a good college experience for our fellow students.  So, we take the time to do team building exercising. In these exercises, we perform tasks that require communication and team work to effectively complete tasks. One exercise we did was having to pass a hula hoop around all 8 of us while holding hands. This was quite a difficult task because we are all different heights and sizes. This practice taught me how to communicate well with my colleagues and how each person on our team is unique and that I must respect those differences in order to work efficiently together. In Artifact 2, is a video of my team and I preforming a chant we created. This chant was used for a leadership conference that we attended. As a team with one goal of creating a positive college experience, we also must learn what each other’s boundaries are and seek ways to respect them.   

My capacity to work well within a team has been strengthen through my involvement in the variety of clubs and organizations in college. In my future career as a nurse, this strengthened capacity will help me provide the best care for my patients. I will be able to use my knowledge of what it requires to work effectively on a team: mutual respect, effective communication and a common goal.