Can you believe that working in a self-managed team in the home care assistance means not to have a boss?

Please, don’t misunderstand my words. You always have to answer for your actions of course: to yourself and to your patients first of all, but then also to your colleagues and to your agency.

 

Inside the team, by the way, there’s no boss, as we generally mean it. There’s no one who’s there to control you, to give you strictly indications or even orders. The members of the team are all equals.

 

… What? What does it mean? There are assistants and nurses and, among them, different kind of nurses as well (graduated or not)… So how can they be all equal to each other?

 

The several members of the team have different educations and functions, indeed. Also the responsibility given to them is not the same. Whoever practices some nursing actions on the client is responsible for what he or she does. On the other side, the establishment (and the management) of the nursing care plans are nurses’ business, especially of the graduated ones (level 5).

But not to have someone who’s responsible for you; who’s there basically to figure your problems out; who does so many things for the team, without that anyone even notices it… this is one, unequivocal effect: the team itself must take some of those tasks on.
And what happens then? Something special: people stop to think following their own personal, egoistic, singular perspective. They start to give their best for the group. They really cooperate with each other, to make the team work: they don’t become lazy or less dedicated to their job; actually, they do the right opposite.

 

They give themselves rules of responsibilities, they take the most important decisions together, they reinvent themselves and make the interest for the “cause” (or, even better, of the team) their own interesses.
Their flexibility is admirable and how news and changes flow quickly inside the team is incredible: all of this because no one imposing his own opinion. Everything grows up spontaneously inside the team and it’s up to it’s members to let it become true.

Is it without stress? Of course not. But, from my point of view, it’s worth it.

 

Federica.