As nurses, we are very familiar with the environmental factors associated with change, the impact of chaos on working relationships, and the general milieu of a nursing unit. This story relates how a student in a leadership practicum was encouraged to look at change through an organizational lens when the leadership dynamics changed in a work group. The Roy Adaptation Model and chaos theory were applied as frameworks for this assessment as a way to organize and foster learning. Through this serendipitous opportunity, the student gained an insight into the dynamics of group process and an appreciation of the work it takes for leaders and managers to keep the work group in a healthy functional state.
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