Developing Community Competence Through The Work Group Approach

The concept of community as client can be difficult for the community health nurse,
especially when the emphasis of a community is a location in space and time of
aggregates or groups of people. Precision in explicating community as client partner
is attained when nursing practice is focused on community competence, as both
process and outcome of integrating individual selves into functioning collectives. It is
rooted in social interaction where each participant in the interaction : becomes part of
the other, learning not only his/her part but the part of the other as it is experienced or
understood.

Community Competence
-defined as the capacity of a community to collectively problem solve to achieve
community goals.

Cottrell described a competent community as one in which its interdependent parts

can:
1. Collaborate effectively in identifying the needs and problems of the
community
2. Achieve a working consensus on goals and priorities
3. Agree on ways and means to implement the agreed upon goals
4. Collaborate effectively in carrying out the actions

Cottrell describes eight essential dimensions that must exist to some degree in a
community for it to function effectively:
1. Commitment
2. Self-other awareness
3. Articulateness
4. Communication
5. Conflict Containment and Accomodation
6. Participation
7. Management of relations with the larger society
8. Machinery for facilitating participant interaction and decision making\
The Stages of Group Development

A. The stage of Orientation

- they search for a role for themselves in the group, wondering if they will be
liked and respected or ignored and rejected
B. The stage of Conflict
-each member tries to establish for himself his preferred amount of initiative and
power and gradually a control hierarchy within the the group is established.
C. The stage of Cohesiveness
-there is intensification of personal involvement, a growing awareness and mutual
recognition of the significance of the group experience in terms of personality
growth and change.
D. The Work group stage
- the uniqueness of the members and the leaders are seen and expected, they can
now accept one another’s differences
E. The termination stage
- members of groups experience a sense of ending
F. The various stages at work
- the group returns to the same issues but each time from a different perspective
and each time in greater depth

Interventions to Facilitate Group Growth

A. Provide the necessary orientation, structure and directions

B. Help meet members interpersonal needs
C. Process, negotiate and resolve conflicts to everyone’s satisfaction
a) Help members understand the nature of conflict
b) Help members g through the coping process of conflict resolution using the
problem solving approach
c) Help members generate new ways of looking at the situation or problem
d) Help members analyze the here and now experience
D. Be aware of the effects of own behavior on the group: use the self for group
growth
E. Act as the Group’s completer/ resource person
F. Derive opportunities to apply learning on another situation

As work groups experience the dimensions of community competence, they feel

motivated and confident in pursuing empowerment domains as areas of influence that
allow community residents to work together and mobilize themselves toward
increased critical consciousness, level of control and choice over health,
healthcare/service/ program decisions and options

These domains are:

a. Improved participation
b. Developed local leadership
c. Increased problem assessment capacities
d. Enhance ability to ask why
e. Improved resource mobilization
f. Strong organizational structures/support groups
g. Strong links with other organizations and people
h. Egalitarian/ equitable relationship between the community and outside agent
i. Increased control over program management
 Foundation University
College of Nursing
Dumaguete City, Philippines

Developing Community
Competence Through The
Work Group Approach

Submitted by: Zenyjean Gallegos

Submitted to : Ms. Pertha Marie Alvarico, RN

April 26, 2019