Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “GROUP PROCESSES”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 523 records · Page 29Linked to original sources

Strategic group decision support systems--a guide for the unwary.

Considerable interest is currently being shown in the use of information technology to assist in improving group process, particularly those associated with strategic planning. Three major approaches are developing to provide this support, and these are described in this article. In general, articles about Group DSS are overwhelmingly favourable to the approaches, although research findings suggest that some forms of Group DSS can have deleterious effects on the quality of meetings. These research findings are discussed.

Decision Making, Organizational↗

Facial emotion processing in criminal psychopathy. Preliminary functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that people with psychopathic disorders lack empathy because they have deficits in processing distress cues (e.g. fearful facial expressions). AIMS: To investigate brain function when individuals with psychopathy and a control group process facial emotion. METHOD: Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging we compared six people scoring > or =25 on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised and nine non-psychopathic healthy volunteers during an implicit emotion processing task using fearful, happy and neutral faces. RESULTS: The psychopathy group showed significantly less activation than the control group in fusiform and extrastriate cortices when processing both facial emotions. However, emotion type affected response pattern. Both groups increased fusiform and extrastriate cortex activation when processing happy faces compared with neutral faces, but this increase was significantly smaller in the psychopathy group. In contrast, when processing fearful faces compared with neutral faces, the control group showed increased activation but the psychopathy group decreased activation in the fusiform gyrus. CONCLUSIONS: People with psychopathy have biological differences from controls when processing facial emotion, and the pattern of response differs according to emotion type.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗

Building a mission for quality care.

Clearly, there is a benefit to the group process in helping to establish teamwork. Teamwork and cooperation can assist with promoting effective communication, improving work quality, and building a sense of well-being within the group. With this cooperation, setting goals and looking toward the future can become a reality. Once goals are set, then developing a professional image can begin. Developing a mission statement can be an effective means to help create that professional image. Having the opportunity to develop a mission for a patient care area and articulating it through a mission statement coalesces the values, beliefs, and philosophy of a group of neuroscience staff. The following is the mission statement developed by the neurosciences unit at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics: We, the staff of UWHC Neuroscience unit embrace a vision of excellence in health care for all. Our mission is to deliver consistent quality patient care, while fostering our own professional growth. As caring healers, teachers and patient advocates in an ever-changing health care environment, we are empowered by the code for nurses. Within our scope of practice, we strive to maintain a balance of basic human respect and dignity for patients and their families in their quest for wellness, adaptation, rehabilitation or comfort care. It is our hope that patients and families will work with the health care team to construct a plan of care that best meets the patient's needs and goals. We are committed to accommodate special communication, religious or cultural needs of patients and their families. Our final acknowledgment is to ourselves, as members of the health care team. We celebrate the dignity of the staff by recognizing each individual as a special person capable of making unique and significant contributions to the unit.

Communication↗

A facilitative approach to learning about curriculum development.

Graduate students have high ambitions and desire excellence in their work. Creating learning opportunities that capture this drive and help them achieve and exceed their goals is a challenge for educators. This article describes two teaching approaches, group process and an adaptation of Bensusan's escalator model, which were used in a graduate nursing course to help students learn about curriculum development. Students participated as a faculty group, submitting successive iterations of their work as they developed hypothetical curricula. Benefits students identified from course faculty's critiques of their submissions included experiencing enhanced self-direction, self-esteem, and mutual respect among students and between students and course faculty, as well as authentic curriculum development in a safe, caring, and supportive context. This article discusses the strengths and limitations of this pragmatic and productive learning approach to preparing future nurse educators for their role as curriculum developers.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

Factors affecting the efficacy of peripheral blood progenitor cells collections by large-volume leukaphereses with standardized processing volumes.

BACKGROUND: Peripheral blood progenitor cell (PBPC) collections should be safe and efficient. Therefore, the influence and risk factors in large-volume leukaphereses (LVL) with standardized blood volumes was investigated. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: In a total of 724 autologous LVL performed at our center, either 4x or 6x the patient's blood volume (PBV) was processed. The group with processing 4x the PBV showed a median of 31 circulating CD34+ cells per microL, and the group with processing 6x the PBV had a median of 13 CD34+ cells per microL before LVL. Individual clinical factors, laboratory factors, and apheresis run variables influencing the yields of PBPCs were retrospectively analyzed. Furthermore, the changes of laboratory variables and adverse effects during LVL were investigated. RESULTS: Multivariate analysis identified "age,""circulating CD34+ cells," and "percentage of mononuclear cells" as only factors influencing the yields of PBPCs. Altogether, processing 6x versus 4x the PBV did not result in significantly higher yields of CD34+ cells for the total group, but requested PBPC yields were achieved more often after processing 6x the PBV in patients below 20 CD34+ cells per microL blood. Processing 6x versus 4x the PBV showed a significant difference for the decrease of platelets, but not for any other laboratory variable. Adverse effects were recorded in 4.97 percent of LVL without accumulation in one group. CONCLUSION: In particular, patients with low amounts of circulating CD34+ cells profited from enlarged LVL demonstrating higher PBPC yields but comparable rates of adverse effects.

Adolescent↗

The influence of an animal on social interactions of nursing home residents in a group setting.

This study was conducted to determine the effect of the presence and absence of a dog on the frequency and types of social interactions among nursing home residents during a socialization group. Point sampling was used to evaluate the behaviors of 36 male nursing home residents at a Veterans Administration Medical Center under two conditions, Dog Present and Dog Absent. A significant difference in verbal interactions among residents occurred with the dog present, F(1, 69) = 4.92, p < .05. These findings are consistent with existing literature, thus providing further evidence of the value of Animal Assisted Therapy programs as an effective medium for increasing socialization among residents in long-term care facilities. Because an increase in social interactions can improve the social climate of an institution and occupational therapists frequently incorporate group process into their treatment, the therapeutic use of animals can become a valuable adjunct to reaching treatment goals.

Aged↗

[When "self-effacement" disappears: narratives of personal and group successes depending on an in group relationship].

The distinction between ingroup and outgroup has played an important role in group process research. However, much less attention has been paid to variations among ingroups. In this study, we attempted to demonstrate that different ingroups could have different psychological impacts on self and group serving or effacing behavior. In our social survey. Japanese respondents evaluated the importance and psychological meaning of two typical ingroups: their family and another social group in which they spent most of their time. They were also asked about their behavior in the presence of ingroup members from each group. Results indicated that people showed a self-effacing tendency in the social group, whereas they showed a self-serving tendency in their family. At the same time, they showed a group-serving tendency when they talked about the social group, but they showed the opposite, i.e., a group-effacing tendency, when they talked about their family. These differences are explained in terms of relationships with ingroup members.

Achievement↗

Fred C. Cuny Memorial Continuing Education Series. Lesson 10: group dynamics in disasters: managing work groups.

Groups are assigned or formed to perform tasks that one person cannot accomplish alone. This lesson describes the classification of work groups, group unity, leadership, motivation, recognition, conflict resolution, and remediation associated with managing groups and their activities. Advantages associated with group process include 1) the generation of better ideas, 2) ability to assume greater risks; make fewer errors; 3) the capacity for greater knowledge and 4) information, and for some problems, production of better decisions. Groups may be formal or informal. Formal groups may be organic, task-directed, or committees. Informal groups arise when it becomes obvious that a group will work better or may be formed by a discipline within the organization or through friendships. The size of the group its status within the organization, the goals established, and the dependence of the members on the group all may affect the cohesiveness of the group. Leadership of the group must keep the group focused on the objectives and enhancement of the efficiency of its operation and the quality of the decisions made by the group. Motivation of a group often is more difficult than is that for individuals and generally positive inducements work better than do negative measures such as coercion and reprimands. Roles are often informal and conferred by the group collectively. Often norms are established within groups that help the group deal with conflict. Inadequate performance within a formal group may require changes in the leadership, removal of a member or clique within the group, reduction of group size, and/or dissolution of the group. Understanding the dynamics of groups is an essential skill required of good managers.

Goals↗

Treatment of the chronically mentally ill: an opportunity for the group therapist.

This article focuses on the therapist's task of engagement in the group treatment of the chronic mentally ill. The dynamics of individual and group processes are reviewed with an emphasis on the contributions of social, interpersonal, and intrapsychic factors. Drawing upon the observations of Friedman (1988), the presentation explores therapists' efforts to restore their inner balance by (1) acting like a therapist, that is, according to their theory; (2) satisfying their curiosity; and (3) eliciting "something desirable," which is formulated as the therapist's search for interactive responses. Examples illustrate these elements as they emerge in group psychotherapy.

Chronic Disease↗

Meeting family needs following severe head injury: a multidisciplinary approach.

Families of neurotrauma patients experience significantly increased stress during the acute phase of injury. It is important to recognize each family's needs during this period in order to enhance the potential for recovery. Assessment of individual needs, communication with the health care team, and genuine concern are necessary. One successful approach to the group process is "The Family Huddle", a technique which has enjoyed positive results at one institution.

Brain Injuries↗

Understanding obstacles to the recognition of and response to dementia in different European countries: a modified focus group approach using multinational, multi-disciplinary expert groups.

Experts from eight European countries (Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom) and the disciplines of clinical psychology, general practice, geriatric medicine, old age psychiatry, medical sociology, nursing and voluntary body organisation met in 2003 to explore obstacles to recognition of and response to dementia in general practice within Europe. A modified focus group methodology was used in this exploratory process. Groups were conducted over a two-day period, with five sessions lasting 1-1.5 hours each. An adapted nominal group method was used to record themes arising from the group discussion, and these themes were used in a grounded theory approach to generate explanations for delayed recognition of and response to dementia. The overarching theme that arose from the focus groups was movement, which had three different expressions. These were: population movement and its consequences for localities, services and professional experience; the journey of the person with dementia along the disease process; and the referral pathway to access services and support. Change is the core issue in dementia care, with multiple pathways of change that need to be understood at clinical and organisational levels. Practitioners and people with dementia are engaged in managing emotional, social and physical risks, making explicit risk management a potentially important component of dementia care. The boundary between generalist and specialist services is a particular problem, with great potential for dysfunctionality. Stigma and ageism are variably distributed phenomena both within and between countries.

Aged↗

On the capacity of attention: its estimation and its role in working memory and cognitive aptitudes.

Working memory (WM) is the set of mental processes holding limited information in a temporarily accessible state in service of cognition. We provide a theoretical framework to understand the relation between WM and aptitude measures. The WM measures that have yielded high correlations with aptitudes include separate storage-and-processing task components, on the assumption that WM involves both storage and processing. We argue that the critical aspect of successful WM measures is that rehearsal and grouping processes are prevented, allowing a clearer estimate of how many separate chunks of information the focus of attention circumscribes at once. Storage-and-processing tasks correlate with aptitudes, according to this view, largely because the processing task prevents rehearsal and grouping of items to be recalled. In a developmental study, we document that several scope-of-attention measures that do not include a separate processing component, but nevertheless prevent efficient rehearsal or grouping, also correlate well with aptitudes and with storage-and-processing measures. So does digit span in children too young to rehearse.

Adolescent↗

Communicating in a community mental health system.

In a multicentered mental health system in which the population has a choice of several treatment facilities, common problems such as geographical distance and infrequent contacts between agencies lead to interagency distrust, unrealistic expectations about patient care, and fears of being overburdened by other agencies. These problems are compounded by the passive bureaucratic attitude which pervades many community mental health systems: unwillingness to do more than the minimum; cunning efforts to send difficult patients to other parts of the mental health system (such as "sending patients back to the community"); and secrecy about the minimal amount of work being done and therapeutic failures. Thus, it is easy for a patient to be lost in the shuffle of a state hospital or to be transferred to a day center where he can be ignored so long as he is compliant. If he protests, he can be sent back to the state hospital and be either medicated or isolated. In both facilities, it is possible to make a minimal effort for continuing and coordinated care, and to refuse to openly confront the need for responsible care-giving. This situation is most likely to exist where senior staff are univolved and uninterested, and where government budgets and regulations make staff feel helpless. After being confronted with these system level problems, the author instituted an interagency meeting of a multicentered community mental health center, designed to meet the need for coordination and communication among various agencies within a given system. This paper articulates a general theoretical understanding of the organizational task and the group process of this type of meeting. Within this framework a specific case is analyzed and discussed.

Communication↗

Incorporating feminism into the graduate curriculum.

Feminist theory and methods are vital catalysts to teaching/learning in graduate education. This article describes how feminism was integrated into a graduate course, specifically regarding nursing activism and health policy. Major themes include a learning model emphasizing the student's individual strands of life experience, reconstruction of nursing history, and small-group process. Class assignments, student responses, and the implications of feminist perspectives for advanced professional practice are discussed.

Curriculum↗

A conceptual overview of selected consultation models.

Because of their current popularity and utility 4 consultation models have been selected for analysis: consultee centered, group process, social action, and ecological (exemplified by Gerald Caplan, Ronald Lippitt, Saul Alinsky, and James Kelly, respectively). The process of consultation as outlined by these models is described along the following dimensions: definitions of consultation, self-perceptions of the consultant, target populations, motivation of the client system, entry, goals, diagnosis, techniques, termination, and evaluation. The discussion focuses on criteria for selecting an appropriate consultation model.

Goals↗

Participation: the key to learning for patients in antepartal clinics.

An approach to patient education which recognized successful participation in the learning process as a key factor in providing information for antepartal clinic patients, known to be poorly motivated, was instituted without changing any system or organization and using a minimal amount of nursing and patient time. Important information on care during pregnancy, labor and delivery, and care of the newborn was shared. Group process also provided a vehicle for expression of feelings, opportunity for reassurance, and direction for particular action. The difficulties inherent in this approach to learning are recognized and recommendations are made for dealing with them.

Female↗