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Solving Conflicts among Nurses Staff - Strategies and Implications

   

Added on  2023-06-08

1 Pages986 Words463 Views
Introduction
This subject was selected as it is relevant to change in management and also issues in leadership and management. Conflict is one of the major issues that can take place in any organization more often in hospitals
where most of human interaction occurs(Amestoy et al., 2014). Nurses have played a variety of roles in hospitals such as managers, care providers, and educators(Higazee, 2015). These roles usually lead to various
types of interaction among nurses and with other healthcare workers and such conflicts can arise.

Solving Conflicts among Nurses Staff

Most Common Types of Conflicts

Interpersonal conflicts- This is a type of conflict which arise between one nurse
and another due to various differences such as personal grudge and poor
communication between them(Amestoy et al., 2014).

Intergroup conflicts- This type of conflicts occurs when one group of nurses
disagree with another group due to factors such as racism, ethnicity, personal
interest, and differences in ideas(Jerng et al., 2017).

Interprofessional conflicts- This is the most common type of conflicts that
occurs in hospital especially between nurses and doctors. Such conflicts arise due to
a feel of inferiority complex, disruption of nurses by doctors, lack of mutual
understanding for the benefit of the patients and poor communication(Akpabio,
John, Akpan, Akpabio, & Uyanah, 2015). Nurse Manager needs to take care when it
comes to inter-professional conflicts as nurses usually see it as a form of betrayal
when they become neutral which can further because more conflicts.

Factors Leading To Conflicts

There are various factors and issues that can lead to conflicts among nurses
and other health care teams. These include organizational structure,
Misunderstanding, communication problems, lack of resources, roles
disputes, personal differences and lack of professional
commitment(Higazee, 2015). In most cases, communication problems
usually cause conflicts among nurses. Managers need to teach nurses about
effective communication strategies that they can develop to make sure they
build good relationships among nurses and also with other healthcare
professionals(Jerng et al., 2017). In addition to that, it is the responsibility
of a nurse to make sure she or he understands and has good
communication knowledge and skills. This is due to the fact that, other
than fellow nurses, they are responsible for dealing with patients and their
families directly(Akpabio et al., 2015).

Lack of professional commitments and personal differences are other
major causes of conflicts. When nurses abandoned their work or ignore
some of their commitments, other staffs feel frustrated due to work
overload and long working hours and thus bringing up complaints which
lead to conflicts and disputes. Nurse Managers work to make sure all
nurses on duty are responsible and always finish their shifts to avoid
disputes.

Strategies for Conflicts Resolution

Due to the fact that an organization with a lot of
conflicts cannot work smoothly, nurse leaders and
manger are usually equipped with knowledge and
skills for solving conflicts among nurses. Such
strategies include the following;

Dealing with the situation as it is- Nurse Managers
may at time encourage the parties with conflicts to
deal with the situation they have. This includes
setting personal differences aside and trying to get
the solution that fit them equally(Santos et al., 2016).

Mediation- Nurses leaders usually act as mediators in
solving conflicts where both parties cannot find a
common consensus by themselves. This involves
listening to both parties at conflict and finding a
solution that will fit them both(Burke, Walker, &
Clendon, 2015).

Effective Communication- effective communication
among nurses is one of the major factors that
encourages good relationships among nurses and
thus preventing conflicts. Good communication
encourages friendship among staff, mutual
understanding and correct passage of information
from one nurse to another(Burke et al., 2015).

Apologies where appropriately-Sometimes simple
words ‘I am sorry’ ‘forgive me’ can do a lot. It is the
responsibility of a nurse manager to encourage
nurses to keep apologizing to each other where they
do wrong to avoid moving matter to the worst.

Implication to Nursing

Hospital is a friendly environment where those with both physical
and psychological problems seek help. Nurse’s managers are
responsible for mediating conflicts situation. In that case,
therefore, they need to understand the causes of conflicts and
various methods of resolving them(Rentmeester, 2014). A good
organizational structure usually has a good working environment
where all staffs have a smooth and friendly relationship. Such
characteristics are usually associated with improvements in
clinical practice, patient care, and quality outcomes(Santos et al.,
2016). As a nurse manager, identifying, analyzing and dealing with
conflicts at hospitals is vital as it promotes the work of other
nurses and prevents interference of services provided.

Future Recommendations

Nurse’s leaders and managers have the responsibility of marinating a
cool, smooth working environment in hospital in order to promote
patient care. This can be archived in various ways one of them being
solving conflicts among staff(Mallon, 2017). Solving conflicts among staff
requires nurse managers to develop a foundation of which conflicts have
low chances of happening(Lancaster, Kolakowsky-Hayner, Kovacich, &
Greer-Williams, 2015) This includes creating an organizational structure
that clearly portrays the functions and responsibility of each and every
individual.

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