Nursing Practice: Incident Report and Conflict Resolution

Running Head: NURSING PRACTICE 1
Nursing Practice
Name of Student
Name of Institution
Date of Submission

NURSING PRACTICE 2
Nursing Practice
Incident Report
On Monday, I arrived at Charles Darwin University Hospital Medical Ward to
undertake my clinical placement for 2 weeks. I was received by RN Tim Coloton who
introduced himself as my preceptor and guided me through my orientation. After
familiarizing myself with this facility, I was expecting Tim Coloton to give me further
instructions but I did not see him again that day.
On Tuesday, I reported at the facility and met Tim Coloton who explained why he
could not appear in double staffing. I requested him that I wanted to discuss issues about my
placement, scope of practice, and placement objectives. Instead, Tim Coloton replied that he
would create time much later for that discussion. While there, Tim Coloton referred to me as
a ‘young Padawan’. I felt that my preceptor was undermining my practice. Later that day, we
were doing ward rounds in the assigned rooms 1 to 5 when we met a 21-year-old woman with
leukaemia in room 1. Tim Coloton challenged me to describe where I should look for
bleeding in that patient. After describing the procedure, Tim Coloton referred to me as a
walking textbook. This compliment did not auger well with my intuition because I felt like
my preceptor was becoming sarcastic.
On the third day, I completed my morning shift and Tim Coloton asked me to
handover my patients to the afternoon staff RN Jenny Lee, RN Elizabeth McGregor, and EN
Dorothy Mac. Unfortunately, I forgot to mention that patient Ross Kantilla was on a 1000ml
fluid restriction while patient Margarita Voulos was to fast from midnight Wednesday until
morning. Tim noted my mistakes and called me aside. He instructed me to adhere to the
ISBAR framework whenever handing over my patients. I told Tim that he was too picky for
summoning me over the two omissions. However, Tim affirmed that he was only trying to

NURSING PRACTICE 3
give me a constructive feedback. At this point, I became stressed and anxious leading to the
submission of my incident report to NUM John Matthew while also adding that I would not
turn up again.
Procedures for Dealing with Conflict Incidents
According to the case study, Shannon Doe submitted her incident report because she
felt bullied, stressed, and anxious. Such predicaments of nursing students are often caused by
communication problems as well as misunderstanding between them and their preceptors
(Budden et al, 2017). Since Shannon and Tim could not resolve their conflicts, Shannon
decided to terminate her clinical placement at the hospital. Now, there are many procedures
which can be adopted to facilitate conflict resolution in such incidences. To start with, it is
prudent to clarify the issues causing such disagreements (Cherry & Jacob, 2016). This can be
achieved through the provision of code of ethics or contract forms containing the job
descriptions and role boundaries of each nurse. In addition, clarifications of issues between a
nursing student and a preceptor promotes collaboration and assertiveness during clinical
placements (Lamont, Brunero & Woods, 2015).
Secondly, conflicts in a healthcare facility can be resolved by encouraging positive
communication and relations among members of staff (Pines et al, 2014). An effective
communication system motivates nurses to share their experiences and discuss conflicting
issues within the facility. However, if the communication system is compromised, nursing
students and junior nurses will face difficulties in raising their concerns (Pines et al, 2014). In
this case, Shannon perceived that she was being bullied because the system was unfavourable
to her. Apparently, the communication channel in this facility suppressed nursing students
and junior nurses while entitling senior members of staff.