Clinical Leadership and Management

RUNNING HEAD: CLINICAL LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT 1
Clinical Leadership and Management
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Clinical leadership and management 2
Introduction
Conflict refers to a disagreement or an argument between two or more people. Despite
the fact that there are internal conflicts in various individuals, conflict in this case refers to
external disagreements among people. Workplace conflict therefore refers to conflict occurring
in the workplace or as a result of work. Conflict is therefore inevitable in all working
environments including the health sector. Different conflicts vary in magnitude and are caused
by several reasons. Conflict has adverse effects in the work place and has detrimental effects on
the outcomes. It is therefore necessary that conflict is resolved as soon as it occurs. There are
various methods of conflict resolution such as avoiding, accommodating or compromising. In
addition, the leadership also plays a huge role in the prevention and mitigation of conflicts at the
work place. However, when conflicts occur, they should be used as the ground for formation of
new rules, changing organizational culture as well as forming basis for learning (Cherry, &
Jacob, 2016). .
Conflict situation
Among the many roles that nurses do include patient identification, drug administration
and assessment of vital signs and patient condition. Through this, it is possible to find out the
deteriorating patient or the improving patient. There once occurred a conflict over two nurses in
different shifts. The conflict was over drug mismatch where the one nurse Becky had
interchanged drugs of two patients. One of the two patients was diabetic and his condition has
worsened due to increased sugar levels in the blood. The nurse then confronted the fellow nurse
accusing her of interchanging the medication claiming that the medicine had been placed by the
patient’s bed by the fellow nurse. The day nurse went ahead to confront her colleague Alice over
the incident as she did not want to take responsibility of the situation.

Clinical leadership and management 3
Alice completely denied the allegation claiming that she did not interchange the drugs.
Becky felt offended by the denial and went on confronting Alice and only ended up insulting her
over the issue. Becky was also complaining about Alice’s competence and threatened that she
was going to make sure that Alice pay for it by losing her job. Alice could not take it anymore
and she reported Becky to the nurse in charge. The team leader, not willing to get involved in the
issue asked them to sort their issues and fix the problem with the patient. Alice felt so
disappointed and spent the rest of the day moody and not talking to anybody. It was possible to
see the frustration written on her face.
Events that led to the conflict
It is quite hard to determine which events led to the conflict in question however, it is
possible to point out a few factors that might have led to the conflict. It happened that the team
leader was not that effective in follow ups and assigning duties. Nurses therefore worked without
proper guidance which often led to conflicting roles among them. Conflicting roles then led to
conflict among the workers. Coupled by the fact that the team leader was also not good at
mitigating conflicts among the workers, such conflicts could more than often get out of hand
resulting to differences that often had devastating consequences.
Focusing on personal values and differences, it is also likely to conclude that Becky has a
high temper and is quick to judge. She is unable to hide her emotions to the extent that she
confronts Alice and even threatens her. The other factor that also caused conflict was lack of a
well-established workplace culture that did not clearly define the interrelationships among
workers. There are people from different families and different cultural backgrounds which
brings in cultural differences. Low tolerance among workers is a threat to cultural safety and it
also acts as route to conflicts. Lastly, the workers have different levels of experience and they are

Clinical leadership and management 4
also trained differently. Whereas this may be a positive due to influx of new skills, it is also a
reason for disagreements based on the differences in how workers conduct activities.
My position
I am working as an enrolled nurse at the hospital. Most of my duties are in the ward. Part
of my routine practices include attending to patients, making sure they are well fed, their
cleanliness and the hygiene levels. Infection control is therefore part of my work at the ward. In
addition, I usually stand in for colleagues who are not in the work or those who are late for work.
Depending on the team leader in charge, I am also assigned other roles such as collecting vital
signs depending on the workload.
In the face of conflict situations, I feel obliged to intervene since I really hate conflicts
and disagreements. I therefore strive to be at peace with all people. This is not that easy as people
are different and there are weak rules of engagement between the teams. It requires of me to
stand in my ground in what I believe in, to sometimes compromise my values and stand in order
to agree with my colleagues and to constantly approach my workers when they are in conflict.
Measures to seek immediate resolution
The method used to solve a conflict is determined by the type of conflict at hand. There
are two types of conflicts at the workplace. Workplace conflicts either arise from the relationship
among workers, the tasks or both. Relationship conflicts involve personal values, stigma and
prejudice as well as other kinds of personal differences (Huan, & Yazdanifard, 2012). Such
conflicts have very devastating consequences because they eat into the productivity of the
workers. It hinders effective communication and lowers job satisfaction which in turn lowers the
motivation levels. Task conflicts usually have nothing to do with personal issues and have less