Question 1

A work group has completed its first task and meets to evaluate its work prior to engaging in its next task. The leader should recognize which team member comment as requiring restatement, redirection, or refinement?

Accepted Answer

1. Feeling should be expressed, as long as they are stated in terms of specific events or issues.
2. Vague, general comments need to be stated as more specific feedback.
3. Personal feedback is useful if it addresses objective points.
4. Positive feedback must point to actual behaviors, accomplishments, or methods.

Question 2

The hospital's strategic building plan calls for the nursing unit to double in size within the next year. How can planning for this increase best be accomplished?

Accepted Answer

1. An outside consultant is less likely to gain access to important information or to assist the nursing team to address teamwork issues.
2. A well-led team would can best offer feedback in a direct fashion, member to member.
3. A well-coordinated team will address all relevant points in an organized fashion.
4. The forum for addressing workplace issues needs to be planned and managed in a controlled and constructive way.

Question 3

A home health agency will find which benefit when its nurses perform at a high level of teamwork?

Accepted Answer

1. Designated leadership is more common of a group rather than of a team.
2. Maintenance of individuality characterizes a group.
3. Reluctance to address conflict characterizes a group.
4. Role confidence regarding a shared mission is a hallmark of teamwork.

Question 4

A nursing leader observes conflict in the team. The leader's response to this conflict should be based on which principle?

Accepted Answer

1. External expertise can be valuable to team deliberations and decisions.
2. Conflicts over issues can be healthy, whereas conflicts based on personalities are destructive.
3. The team thrives on a history of support and accomplishment of goals in spite of variations in member's outlooks.
4. Personal feelings or reactions should be aired in controlled, constructive, and appropriate ways, which may not occur immediately.

Question 5

The nursing unit is adopting the "self-directed work team" model. What benefits are likely to occur because of this decision? Select all that apply.

Accepted Answer

1. Self-directed work teams are often associated with patient-centered care.
2. Services will likely be decentralized.
3. This is team nursing, not working on a self-directed work team.
4. This is a benefit of using this model.
5. This is a benefit of using this model.

Question 6

Which action, taken by the administration of a healthcare facility, would likely hinder the success of self-directed work teams?

Accepted Answer

1. All team members should be empowered to exercise leadership and control.
2. While all teams require specific boundaries and responsibilities, the self-directed team differs in that the team, rather than an outside entity, develops these concepts.
3. Self-directed work teams should include development of performance evaluation tools useful for the team and there should be team-wide implementation of this evaluation. Management centered evaluation violates this principle.
4. All members will require skills in management, communication techniques, and interpersonal relations.

Question 7

An effective nursing leader can foster positive followership by rewarding team members who exhibit which behavior?

Accepted Answer

1. While doing the job well is important, an effective follower will also self-evaluate and institute changes as necessary.
2. This follower may focus on social issues and ignore the other work of the team.
3. The effective follower will complete his or her assigned tasks, but will also be aware of the organizational climate.
4. Development of shared participation, personal investment in unit goals, and a self-starting attitude build active followers.

Question 8

What is a major difference between formal teams and informal teams?

Accepted Answer

1. Formal team members generally have less in common than informal team members.
2. Informal teams are formed by those that have common interests or needs.
3. Formal teams are often assigned by the organization.
4. The formal teams present in many organizations are also known as committees.

Question 9

An interprofessional discharge planning team has received negative feedback from several patients regarding lack of clarity in post-discharge instructions. Which leader statement is most constructive for this team at this point?

Accepted Answer

1. This statement implies that a member or members of the team have done something wrong to cause the feedback. This attitude projects a feeling that the team failed.
2. This statement implies that the current members of the team are not capable of solving the problem.
3. This statement implies that the job was done incorrectly. The statement is also delivered as if it were a punishment for a failure.
4. Empowerment is developed by an attitude of learning from mistakes, rather than a sense of failure. Cohesiveness, mutual support, the value and significance of members, and a message of stimulation and energy will motivate a team to perceive negative feedback as a challenge rather than a failure.

Question 10

Which statement regarding the authority of a team leader is accurate?

Accepted Answer

1. Often the healthcare team leader is a middle manager who does not have the authority of an administrator.
2. The team leader has the authority, but the team members may not recognize that authority. This situation can result in the team being ineffective.
3. As the team gains strength, the leader should begin to relax control and allow the team to exert more and more authority over the direction of the team.
4. The team leader does have authority. In some cases, the leader does not have control.

Question 11

What are the basic group skills necessary for development of an effective team? Select all that apply.

Accepted Answer

1. Basic group skills include communication, negotiation, delegation, time management, and assessment of team dynamics.
2. Basic group skills include communication, negotiation, delegation, time management, and assessment of team dynamics.
3. Manipulation of situations is not a basic team skill.
4. Basic group skills include communication, negotiation, delegation, time management, and assessment of team dynamics.
5. Basic group skills include communication, negotiation, delegation, time management, and assessment of team dynamics.

Question 12

A group of nurses is known for its ability to perform well together to achieve its primary objectives. This group of nurses is demonstrating which characteristics?

Accepted Answer

1. Teamwork is defined by the members' ability to coalesce around achievement of an objective.
2. Shared governance is not necessarily involved in this situation.
3. A working group is known more as a collection of individuals with a lesser commitment to a common goal.
4. Collective individuality is the situation when groups of people work entirely independently of one another, even though they are classified as a group or a team.

Question 13

A nursing team has been gathered to refine documentation procedures. During its second meeting, two members are passive, two struggle impatiently to get the task underway, and two others are dominating and controlling communication. What should the leader do at this point?

Accepted Answer

1. Getting to know one another occurs in the initial orientation or forming stage.
2. This group, fairly early in its business, is in the storming/conflict/confusion stage. Participation, communication, and collaboration can ease the team toward its next stage.
3. Rules are set in the norming stage.
4. Consensus is part of the performing stage.

Question 14

The vice president of nursing for a multi-hospital organization is planning a project team. The team will include members from nursing, medicine, and allied health who will plan the work jointly and will carry it out collaboratively. Each member of the team will be expected to provide the expertise of each profession. Which approach to teamwork is this administrator planning?

Accepted Answer

1. The multidisciplinary team's members function more autonomously.
2. Team nursing is limited to nursing personnel.
3. Total patient care is limited to nursing personnel.
4. The interprofessional team provides maximum collaboration in planning and providing care by members of related health disciplines.

Question 15

Choose the situations that represent the qualities of a team rather than those of a group. Select all that apply.

Accepted Answer

1. These participants have a common goal and will work together to achieve the goal.
2. These participants are working toward a common goal.
3. These participants are working toward a common goal.
4. These participants have separate interests, with no commitment to a common goal and will not necessarily work together.
5. These participants likely have a common goal of improving their individual practice with traumatic brain injury patients, but there is no indication that they will work together to achieve the goal.

Question 16

A nurse has just been promoted to team leader for a nursing unit and wishes to experience a smooth transition into this job. What is a common mistake made by new team leaders?

Accepted Answer

1. New team leaders tend to adopt a directive and more dictatorial approach, out of fear of negative results if input and shared authority were extended to others.
2. This "hands-off" approach can be positive, but requires more experience in the leadership role.
3. The approach requires more experience in the leadership role.
4. With greater experience, trust, and confidence, team leaders tend to be able to share team planning and decision-making.

Question 17

The staff nurse has been asked to assume leadership of a work team. Which strategies should this nurse use to increase the team members' trust? Select all that apply.

Accepted Answer

1. If the leader does not keep promises, trust is lost.
2. Feedback should be honest and formulated to help the followers do a better job.
3. The leader can explain why a promise was not kept, but should not "create" excuses.
4. Followers appreciate rewards when they are earned.
5. Followers should be encouraged to provide feedback to the leader throughout the project.

Question 18

Which statement, if made by the team leader, would best enhance teamwork on a long-term care nursing unit?

Accepted Answer

1. Emphasis on position and hierarchy negatively affects the team.
2. The team needs to be assisted to focus on its tasks and outcomes more than on its social values.
3. Member's contribution and participation in the team's growth and improvement deserve greater emphasis than following rules given by authorities.
4. Teamwork is enhanced by a focus on patient care and by positive feedback about how the team functions and contributes to its own standards and outcomes.

Question 19

A team of nurses is developing a procedure for self-scheduling of staff. The leader can assess that motivation is healthy when what occurs?

Accepted Answer

1. Internal reward is operating when the team is urged on to further work by success with initial steps.
2. Motivated teams develop their own methods and steps in the task through group decision making, not through working independently.
3. The members of this team are not staying on task. Clear boundaries regarding empowerment and goals must be present for proper motivation.
4. Motivated teams work toward delineated outcomes, weathering frustrations and obstacles through mutual support.

Question 20

The nurse manager has done an excellent job of creating a team atmosphere for patient care. Patients receive excellent care, staffing needs of the unit are met internally, and all employees of the unit are valued for their contributions. Which type of teamwork has this manager facilitated?

Accepted Answer

1. The care provided is interprofessional, but the atmosphere on this unit is more than just teamwork.
2. The care provided is multidisciplinary, but the atmosphere on this unit is more than just teamwork.
3. This is most likely a total patient care environment, but the teamwork indicated is more than that.
4. The best answer to this question is that this manager has created a microsystem on the unit that embraces and supports total patient care.

Quiz 12: Developing Interprofessional and Intraprofessional Teams