Leadership
Nursing Information Behavior
While taking LIS 510, Information Behavior with Trent Hill, I assumed a leadership role during the major project for the course when we were asked to design a study that explored the information behavior of a specific type of user. My group, made up of Marjorie Luce, Veronica Vitchit-Vadakan, and Jane Richardson, was assigned the task of investigating the information behavior of nursing staff. I chose this group because my job on the Surgical Unit at Children’s Hospital allowed me easy access to a large population of nurses with whom I already had an established relationship. I was able to use both my relationship and experience with the nursing staff to my group’s advantage throughout the process of creating, administering and analyzing the data from the multiple choice survey we wrote.
Consisting of 15 multiple choice and two open response questions, our survey started with general inquiries about the nurses being interviewed including number of years at their current job and their specialty. Then, we asked them several questions designed to determine their normal mode of information seeking and their level of comfort with a variety of different information resources, which included the patient’s chart and the Internet. From these results we were able to determine that nursing staff don’t have a high level of comfort using technology (even print resources) as an information source, and they mostly rely on the nursing staff working around them when they have an information need.
My leadership role in the group initially sprang from my position in the group as an ‘expert’ on nursing behavior. After working closely with nurses for two years, I was able to answer general questions about technology savvy, motivation and educational background of the nurses that I work with and helped to design our survey based on my knowledge. During the process of administering the survey I gathered the majority of our groups responses, which I then entered into a Catalyst survey we made to tabulate our data. I assisted my group members by gathering important information about nursing schedules and daily routines. I also assisted one group member with recording their section of the presentation when they had technical issues. I made myself available for questions and set up and attended our group’s discussion sessions to be sure that all tasks were assigned, questions were discussed and we were all on track. Through these actions, I helped my group submit a project that accurately reflected the information behavior of nurses.
For me, assuming a leadship role comes naturally. I enjoy planning and collaborating on projects and using my expertise in areas to benefit those I am working with. At my job on the Surgical Unit at Children’s Hospital, I have been told that I am easy to talk to about issues and my feedback is helpful. As a result of my strong leadership skills, I have been placed in charge of a number of functions including creation and dissemination of orientation materials to new staff members. When working on a project, I take everyone’s opinion into consideration and always try to help lead the group towards consensus on whatever issues we have. I find that maintaining harmony, encouraging hard work and celebrating success generates the best work. The experience I had in LIS 510 helped me learn how to apply the skills I had already learned while working at Children’s Hospital to a research project that was undertaken by group members living apart from each other and communicating primarily through email and online chats. Learning how to delegate tasks, communicate effectively and meet deadlines entirely in an electronic environment was difficult at first, because I am used to having face-to-face contact with those I am working with, but over time I was able to understand the benefits of collaborating through this medium (including being able to have a record of converstaions had to reflect upon and use as a memory aid). I found interacting with my group on the web promoted self discipline and trust.
The following links will take you to the Producer Presentations my group created regarding Nursing Information Behavior. These files operate best when you view them using Internet Explorer:
Nursing Time: Introduction
