Management of Conflicts in a Health Care Center

This article discusses the management of conflicts in health care centers, focusing on a conflict between a charge nurse and a staff nurse. It explores the factors contributing to the conflict, measures for immediate resolution, and the leadership style employed. The outcomes of the resolution are also discussed, along with the changes made to prevent similar conflicts in the future. Recommendations for enhancing outcomes and preventing future conflicts are provided.

Running head; MANAGEMENT OF CONFLICTS IN A HEALTH CARE CENTER 1
CONFLICTS MANAGEMENT IN A CLINICAL SETTING
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Date

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Introduction
It’s very normal to have conflicts in organizations because people with different opinions
and interests meet to work together. Healthcare centers face more conflicts because there are so
many people interacting, nurses and patients, conflicts occur between patients and staff and also
among the staff. There are also personal conflicts when improper decisions are made. All
organizations should have always have set methods of handling conflicts because they always
happen. This paper is going to discuss a conflict that occurred between staff that was a charge
nurse and nurse xy. (Pavlakis et al 2015).
Conflict; there was a conflict between nurse xy and a charge nurse. The charge nurse
complained that nurse xy was not willing to take instructions given by the charge nurse. For the
seven months that the charge nurse had been in that position, nurse xy has never been
cooperative and sometimes she reports that she won’t make for her shift when it’s already late.
She suggested that nurse xy seems to hate her and extends that to work. This conflict led to a
quarrel between the two parties and also disrupted ongoing duties at that moment because the
quarrel attracted the attention of everyone around there.
The nurse claimed that the charge nurse was always rude to her verbally and non-
verbally and she always wanted to overwork her. Nurse xy confessed that the charge nurse
treated everyone horribly and their difference started when nurse xy complained about how the
charge nurse was treating patients by using abusive language to patients and treating them
without respect.

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Factors that contributed to the conflict
The two conflicting parties agreed to give their reasons that led to the conflict; each was assigned
with different personnel to give their views. Separating them helped in making them tell the
truth. The following were the various reasons given by the parties.
 A poor general relationship between staff members – it was disclosed that many staff
members do not relate well as partners. Some work under the same groups but they don’t
talk directly to each other unless it’s very necessary. For example, the conflicting parties
were attending their duties under the same team but had stayed in tension and hatred for
seven months.
 Differing opinions when undertaking their lines of duty – it’s always normal to have
different methods of performing a certain duty but ethical workers try to amortize their
differences and decide how to perform a given task. Legal ways are always the best.
Nurse xy was not happy the way the charge nurse was performing her duties because she
was rude to everyone including the patients.
 Poor methods of communication – where there is a bad relationship between staff,
poor communications must arise. Cases were people have differences; it becomes hard to
communicate effectively which consequently leads to poor performance at work. In
addition, the claim that the charge nurse always uses abusive language to her fellow staff
and patients.

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 Unskilled methods of solving personal differences – it’s always advisable to avoid
taking personal differences to the workplace and in case there are problems arising
between employees, they should try to solve them at personal levels. The charge nurse
and nurse xy should have settled their differences at personal levels before it extended to
other levels because they lacked proper skills of settling their problems
 Gossips – there were allegations that nurse xy had been gossiping the charge nurse with
her colleagues at work. Staff should be trained to respect each other and correct them
where they do mistakes instead of gossiping because they can’t change anything.
 Failure of administration to solve matters which have been reported to them by staff
nurse xy had reported the unethical behavior of the charge nurse to the manager but there
was no action taken which resulted to a conflict in future. The management should be
careful in the performance of their duties to ensure that they do ignore what is being
reported to them. Negligence has its own consequences.
Measures of immediate resolutions to the conflict
As the nurses’ supervisor, the problem was reported to me immediately because both
parties were under my working team, therefore I had to take some measures to stop the quarrels
and solve the differences between the two parties immediately to avoid the distraction of work
and terror in patients. The following are the measures I took to resolve the conflict. ( Daly,
Jackson, Mannix, Davidson, & Hutchinson, 2014).

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Firstly, I had to separate the conflicting parties and take them to save, different places
with different persons to talk to them. A secluded place was a good factor to help in getting exact
information about what was happening between the conflicting parties. Both of them cooperated
and were willing to give information about what was bothering them. Enough time was allocated
for them because the matter was not as simple as it seemed. ( Daly, Jackson, Mannix, Davidson,
& Hutchinson, 2014).
Secondly, the conflicting parties expressed their individual opinions concerning the
conflict. It’s always fair when everyone gets an equal opportunity to clarify their problems. After
listening to their arguments, it’s very easy to come up with judgments and be able to analyze the
person who contributed to the start of the conflict. In our case according to the allegations made
by both parties, the charge nurse was the source of the conflict although she tried to make
excuses for self-defense. It was also the fault of the management because they neglected the
matter when it was reported by nurse xy earlier. At this level of analyzing the problem, it’s not
advisable to speak out personal judgments because neutralizing a conflict needs a neutral
solution for both parties. ( Daly, et al, 2014).
Thirdly, it’s important to analyze concerns being raised from both sides and then give a
resolution which should target 50-50 results. The outcome should give a sense of fairness
because you still need to work with both of them. This point needs high levels of creativity of
clarifying issues to ensure that everyone is guilty of one thing or another. These will assist in
making the resolution process a bit easier and analyzing the possible solutions to the problem
will be easy. When the solution is biased it will lead to more conflicts and lack of satisfaction of
the solution to the losing party. ( Çınar & Kaban, 2015).

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Lastly, I had to come up with an agreement that was suitable for both parties. The charge
nurse and nurse xy had to agree on the solutions reached on a complaint that they had given. The
summary of the discussion was put down in writings then read for them to agree that it was right.
This included solutions to the problems. They seemed to be satisfied with the resolutions because
they agreed with every solution including putting off their personal differences at work. ( Çınar
& Kaban, 2015).
The leadership style employed in resolving the conflict
Autocratic style
As per this style of leadership, the person in charge makes decisions without asking for
the opinions of the employees. It’s the best leadership style in cases where decisions made are
good therefore it requires someone who is creative and a good decision maker. (Peter & Zeira,
2016). It’s considered the best style of leadership because decisions are made faster since there
are no consultations made. ( Singleton, Toombs, Taneja, Larkin & Pryor, 2011).
When I was resolving the conflict between the charge nurse and nurse xy I worked on it
alone in order to make the resolution faster before damages occur or even interference of the
health care daily activities. I gave the parties equal opportunities so as to make the process easier
and achieve a fair outcome for each party.
This style of leadership helped in solving the problem before the end of that day and
everything was back to normal. It was successful. Before adopting this style of leadership, I
considered its disadvantage of making my fellow staff members feeling like they are not being
given an opportunity to express their opinions on the matter since I didn’t involve them in

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solving the conflict. After everything had settled, I had to talk to them and explain the reasons
that made me make that decision considering the urgency of the issue.
The outcomes of the resolution
Based on the arguments given by both team resolutions were made and both parties agreed. The
resolutions made had two outcomes
1. Fail – fail outcome
The charge nurse and nurse xy failed in one way or another. The charge nurse failed in the
following;
 Poor communication skills- the charge nurse agreed that she had been using abusive
language to patients and also staff
 She was rude and hated some of her fellow members of staff
 She was overworking nurse xy because of their personal differences
 She was taking advantage of her position to mistreat other employees
Nurse xy failed in the following;
 Refused to take instructions given by the charge nurse
 Sometimes she reported that she won’t make for her shift when it was already late to
find another nurse to replace her.
 Gossiping the charge nurse with colleagues instead of finding ways of resolving the
differences at personal levels.
Both of them extended personal disputes to work which was unethical so according to the
resolutions they both failed in that.

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2. Fail – win outcome
The charge nurse completely failed in everything she did because she has never attempted to do
anything despite her differences with nurse xy. She did not attempt to find any solution to the
differences for seven months.
Nurse xy won at the point when she reported to the manager about the unethical practices
that the charge nurse was undertaking but the management neglected her allegations during that
moment when it was easy to control. Nurse xy in one way or another tried to control the conflict
by involving the management which failed to support her. Management negligence also
contributed to the conflict. Based on these scenarios, the outcome was fail – win, being the
charge nurse and nurse xy respectively.
Changes that were made to avoid similar occasion from happening.
Conflicts from a general view appears like a bad thing that brings along negative results
but it’s not always true, When conflicts occur, most of the times it’s usually like a signal that
there are loopholes somewhere in the organization which needs to be worked on, it’s important
to identify the weaknesses that exist and make changes that will help prevent similar conflicts in
future. Conflicts can help to strengthen the organization if they are taken positively and creative
reactions are made towards solving them. As a manager, it’s always wise to address conflicts
without involving anger and biases. ( Çınar & Kaban, 2015). Based on the reasons that were
raised by the conflicting parties as factors that contributed to the conflict, the following changes
were made to control the occurrences of a similar conflict again in the clinic.
Training and implementing health care ethics

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Based on complains made from the conflicts, employees have poor unethical behavior.
The charge nurse was hostile and rude to her fellow staff whom she was in charge of and she
always used the abusive language both written and spoken, treating patients without respecting
them and using abusive language to patients was also unethical. (Jackson, 2014). It was unethical
for nurse xy to miss her duties because of personal differences between her and the charge nurse.
This signified a loophole of undeveloped skills when relating to others hence attracted the need
for training on proper communication skills and public relations with other people. (Twigg &
McCullough, 2014).
The organization ethics had to be included in the training for a better understanding of
whatever is right to be done and general behaviors to uphold when at the workplace. Strong
ethical behavior should be implemented and enforced in order to improve the relationship among
staff and also patients and enhance performance. (Turras, 2017). Communication is a key factor
in the success of duties and normal daily activities in health care centers. Staff should be in a
position to communicate directly and work together regardless of their different opinions and
thoughts.
Instilling strong management
Nurse xy had reported the unethical practices of the charge nurse to the management but
there was no action taken which implied negligence of the management. Maybe the management
took it lightly without thinking about the damages that it can cause. The management should
always stay alert and take into concern every feedback they get regardless of how vague it looks.
(Twigg & McCullough, 2014). The minor things are the ones that result in complex matters and
its better prevention than cure. A change was necessary to reshuffle the structure of the

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management considering their levels of creativity when it comes to decision making and their
ability to perform their duties as managers. When management loses its direction, the whole
organization is usually lost too and this has a negative impact on the performance of duties.
Training of the management also was undertaken to improve leadership skills and critical
thinking. Ignoring conflicts does not solve them at all, actually, it works on incubating the
conflicts to become complex. ( Brinkert, 2016).
Discuss the recommendations of enhancing the outcomes and preventing future conflicts
In order to improve outcomes of made resolutions the person in charge of solving the
conflict should not act as if he/she knows the whole story there is need to inquire everything
from the parties including things which seem to be vague. Don’t make personal conclusions
about whatever is happening. You need to find out other reasons which might be making the
conflict worse. For example, personal differences which are out of work or inquire for any
family issues which may be contributing to hatred and conflicts (Saeed, Almas, Anis-ul-Haq, &
Niazi, 2014).
A reconciling party should ensure that they don’t take any side or get biased no matter
how one party tries to defend him/her self or gives a sympathetic explanation. Taking aside will
lead to poor resolutions to the problems. In one way or another, all the parties should lose at the
end of the resolution. It will be fair for everyone to feel that they all lost compared to a case
where one party wins while the other one has lost. It can worsen the situation and feel like the
judgments were not fair for the looser. Rivals can arise from unfair judgments. If there are any
reasons that can compromise you to be biased then someone else should be used to resolve the
differences.

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When resolving conflicts, it's important to set in our minds that conflicts are neutral
situations which are not good or bad. This mentality will lead to a proper resolution. Managers
who resolve conflicts get trusted compared to those who avoid them. (Saeed, Almas, Anis-ul-
Haq, & Niazi, 2014).

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