Group Facilitation Reflection Paper

On November 9th, Erin and I co-facilitated a group discussion around trauma-informed practice as part of our Group Facilitation assignment as second-year nursing students. The process consisted of choosing a peer-reviewed article related to trauma-informed practice, then creating a Facilitation Plan around the article and relevant course theory, and finally facilitating a group discussion. As the next step towards the development of our group facilitation skills, we were assigned to write a critical reflection about the experience of facilitating a group discussion. Through this paper I provided a summary of our group facilitation experience, explored group dynamics, what I perceived as our strengths and challenges, what I have learned from …show more content…
Yet, I ultimately learned that I was not just a facilitator, I was also part of the group, I trusted my peers and the feeling seemed reciprocal so there was nothing to fear. Essentially, I now feel ready to incorporate theory and feedback from my seminar group into three main areas of group facilitation: addressing silent members, summarizing main themes throughout the discussion, and exploring similarities between the members of a group to enhance universality and cohesiveness.
Overall, I believe the discussion went well since it did not feel as if we, the co-facilitators, were leading the discussion, we were merely providing the members with the tools to enhance their self-efficacy as a group. While we presented the main themes, the group itself eventually elaborated their own focus as the discussion developed and they shared their experiences. From all the nursing skills, group facilitation has been the most challenging yet, the most rewarding for me, and as with any nursing skill, practice, reflection, and observation of our seminar leaders will lead to