Exploring teamwork beyond health care

Academic and personal commitments combine in unique ways for many of these faculty. Here’s a story of an international medal winner among the faculty. Competitively rolling small balls with great precision across grass turf toward other balls is a game that arose in the 12th and 13th centuries in Europe, originally using stones.

Lawn bowling, or bowls as it came to be called, became so popular that by the 15th century it was outlawed because it was distracting yeomen soldiers from the hours of practice required to assure the accuracy of their bows and arrows. Only at Christmas time, only at an established residence, and only if observed by one’s employer, was this game legal. But by the 19th century the popularity of bowls had triumphed and Scotland was publishing rules for the game.

Which brings us to 2015 and to Australia where Associate Professor Janice Bell was one of a four-woman team, awarded an international silver medal at the Asia-Pacific Championship Lawn Bowling competition, the Olympics of the sport. Bell, who has master’s degrees in both nursing and public health, is an accomplished doctorally prepared health services researcher awarded multiple grants to study innovative methods for coordinating care for those with serious illness as well as awards for her innovative teaching.

Perhaps it’s not so surprising, finding that an accomplished researcher is also a medal-winning lawn bowler. Both activities are characterized by reliance on teamwork, a precise attention to detail, the need for thoughtful planning and the ability to tolerate both the joy of winning and the determination to try again.