Page 346 - Nutrition Counseling and Education Skills: A Guide for Professionals

SELF-ASSESSMENT 2

Jane Jones, RD, is meeting with a group of pregnant women to discuss the nutritional needs during
pregnancy. All are having a second or third child. As a result, she has chosen group discussion as the method of
presentation.

1. How should she prepare the environment for group discussion?
2. What is her role as facilitator of the group?

Facilitator and Participant Functions and Roles

In addition to the specific skills required of facilitators, there are numerous group skills that both participants
and facilitators should possess. There is a mistaken notion that it is the facilitator’s responsibility alone to see
that the group’s tasks are accomplished and that a healthy group spirit is maintained. In reality, these
responsibilities belong to anyone who has the training and insight to diagnose the group’s weaknesses and has
the skills to correct them.

Because most people are used to being “led” in groups, the facilitator may need to reinforce verbally the
functions that all participants are expected to perform. Box 15-3 describes some of these skills and roles that
both facilitators and participants have a mutual obligation to develop in themselves.1,12–14 Some are task roles
that enhance discussion in reaching a goal; others are social roles that relate to the relationships and cohesion
of the group members. There are also roles that are not helpful to group progress.

Initiator Task Roles
Proposes new ideas, goals, procedures; offers suggestions; gets
Information/opinion seeker group moving
Information/opinion giver Asks questions; seeks information, facts, opinions
Elaborator Offers judgments, beliefs, facts, opinions; raises issues
Clarifier Expands on suggestions or ideas
Clarifies what was said; adds examples, illustrations,
Coordinator explanations
Puts together relationships among facts, ideas, suggestions,
Summarizer activities
Evaluator Reviews points of discussion; restates ideas; offers conclusion
Expresses judgments on the value of ideas or suggestions;
Orienter applies criteria for evaluation; helps group assess quality
Clarifies group’s purpose or goal; defines the position of the
group; summarizes or suggests the direction of the discussion

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