Social Problems

Quality of Life 2

Abstract

Work groups are all around us, from committees at work to neighborhood watch groups. How these groups form, grow and accomplish their goals involve multiple stages and multiple difficulties in arriving at the end result. The interrelationship between work and family is also real and affects each other. Human service providers experience a greater impact than the general worker population in relation to their quality of life due to the conflicts between the demands and stress of the job and demands of the family life. These two topics are the focus of this essay and a real life example will be used to illustrate the work group process.

Quality of Life 3

Quality of Life and Work Groups

Work groups are gatherings of individuals that come together for a common goal. These can be any number of committees at work, a local neighborhood watch group or a parent-teacher group at your childs' school. Whatever the group, it goes through four phases; forming, storming, norming and performing, with each stage having distinct characteristics. After a discussion of a work group that I have been involved in, I will offer a discussion of the quality of life as it relates to the work and family conflict.

The work group that I will focus on is the Emergency Medical Services-Quality Improvement Committee, which was recently restarted after being absent for three years. Once it was decided to restart the committee, and after I had asked the Battalion Chiefs for shift representatives to serve, came the forming stage of the work group. According to lecture notes, this is the first stage and where no significant work is accomplished. This was very true for the QI committee as well, we met, introduced ourselves to the Physician advisor, talked in generalities to what QI would accomplish, where it fit within the EMS system and everyone was cautious. This was partly due to the past EMS Captain and his style towards the other Paramedics. At the next meeting, the committee really got going, some power struggles developed between the members as to who would be the leader and how the committee structure would be, since I am a consultant to the group. This was actually a short phase but happened, then the norming phase started where the Standard Operating Guideline was developed, describing the purpose of the committee, what it will do and how it will accomplish it goals. Standards were established for chart review, how

Quality of Life 4

corrective measures will handled and everyone got on the same page sort of speak. The QI committee is now into the performing phase, which our lecture notes describe as the phase where tasks are performed, and where the committee will remain since it is a standing committee, that meets on a regular basis with an established task of continuous chart review. On a monthly basis the QI committee meets to review charts, discuss issues of patient care, review new equipment needs and evaluate needs for new protocols. The group is working very well together, accomplishing the monthly chart review requirements and providing a