Patient safety group meeting

The goal of this discussion was to examine the numerous ways in which patient safety might be improved. The meeting’s major agenda item was to identify or devise methods to assist patients suffering from chronic diseases. Two chronic patients fell out of their beds in the last month. Although the patients were not injured, the other patients were outraged. Nonetheless, the situation was kept under control. The meeting’s topic was also based on the food provided to patients at the hospital. Some were offended, while others want a different diet. The purpose of the group is to help the bereaved families gain support and help. Bereavement group meetings help people that have lost their loved ones to share their experiences and heal their wounds from the loss (Spence & Smale, 2015). The meetings help these families or individuals to have a new perspective about what happened. The bereavement group meetings also provide a safe place for the individuals and families to talk and listen about the problems they encountered. The members help each other to support one another by sharing their experiences. In the group meeting, it could be identified that the main discussion was about how each individual can move forward in life and take the death as a sign of good things to come in life.

Leader Roles

Patient safety group meeting

There were three leaders during the meeting who were moderating the discussion. The head nurse was the main moderator facilitating the discussion. She was responsible for selecting the people that should talk as well as shutting down an individual that was using vulgar language. One patient acted as a vice to the head nurse. He was responsible for noting down some of the patients grievances. He was also tasked with presenting the grievances from the patients. The last leader who had the same function as the patient leader was a doctor. She was tasked with giving the nurses and doctors view regarding some of their practices.

Bereavement Group Meeting

In the bereavement group meeting, there was one leader that was responsible for calming down the members. The leader was responsible for selecting the people that would share their stories. She was also responsible for moderating the meeting. The meetings were carried out twice a month and dates had to be set. The leader was a preacher in the local church and had the best words to comfort the members. She was also responsible for starting a prayer and singing sessions. Unlike in the patient safety group, the leader sometimes rotated between three individuals. If one was not present, another would take over as the leader during a meeting.

Decision-making Methods

Patient safety group meeting

In the patient’s safety group meeting, the decisions were arrived at after a very rigorous session that involved arguing and voting. Compared to the bereavement group meeting, this meeting had too much negative energy were people nearly exchanged blows in some areas. The decisions however required a voting process where people supporting a certain approach had to lift up their hand. The leaders then sat down to look at the relevancy of the approach, cost wise and how easy it can be implemented.

Bereavement Group Meeting

The bereavement had little decision that needed to be made. Some of the decisions that were made that day were the date of the next meeting, the time and the venue. The leader did not have the sole rights to make the decisions. She was only responsible or suggesting what should be voted on. The members then had to come up with suggestions regarding the topic. The most popular suggestion was selected by the members and the leader had the final say about the decision. Every decision underwent the same process.

Group Member Roles

Patient safety group meeting

In this group, the first role was that of the head nurse. She was responsible with moderating the discussion between the different members. She was also responsible for making the last decision regarding a certain notion or suggestion by the patients or the nurses. The leader of the patients was tasked with noting down the suggestions during the meeting. He was also tasked with saying the patient’s grievances. The leader of the patient had the most roles compared to the other two leaders. The third leader is a doctor who stood for the grievances from the doctors and nurse side. She was tasked with giving ideas about how patients can be taken care of properly.

Bereavement Group Meeting

Unlike the patient safety group meeting, the bereavement group had three leaders but only one was functional during the meeting. The other three leaders acted as deputies in case the head leader was not available. The leader was tasked with moderating the discussion. He was also tasked with suggesting various projects that they can undertake as well as praying and starting singing sessions. The leader had the work of confirming the suggestion of the group members.

Participation

Patient safety group meeting

During the group meeting, the members participated highly. Encouragement was not needed as exemplified by the energy in the room by the patients. The participation was however enhanced by the leader. She was responsible for selecting an individual to give his/her views regarding a particular subject. When one subject was brought up, the members were requested to engage in this subject until it was exhausted then they could move to a new topic.

Bereavement Group Meeting

In the bereavement group meeting, participation was encouraged by the group leader. In most cases, the group leader started by reading a scripture from the bible. The members where then encouraged to share something related to that scripture. The leader was tasked with selecting a member to give his/her view about the topic that day. The members were encouraged to share their most stressing issues.

Similarities and differences between the two groups

The two group meetings where similar in the way their leaders moderated the discussion. They were responsible for selecting who was to give an opinion, idea or sharing a personal issue. The three groups had three leaders as well as a venue that they visited. One of the differences in the group meeting is the emotions showed. In the bereavement group, people were mostly silent and the mood was sad and to some extent depressing. However, the patient safety group meeting was more active and the people at times were seen shouting. Conversely, the patient safety group meeting had many individuals compared to the bereavement group meeting. The patient safety meeting met once a month while the bereavement group meeting met twice per month.

References

Spence, S., & Smale, U. (2015). Group work with bereaved people: developing person-centered practice. Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies, 14(1), 3-17.