Conflict Resolution and Team Cohesion in Healthcare (NSB305, QUT)

This report delves into the critical topic of managing conflict resolution within healthcare settings, particularly focusing on the challenges faced by graduate registered nurses. It begins by defining conflict and intra-professional conflict, highlighting their prevalence in clinical environments due to diverse backgrounds, values, and priorities among nurses. The report emphasizes that conflicts, when addressed effectively, can enhance team cohesion and improve the quality of healthcare. It identifies common sources of conflict, such as communication problems, organizational flaws, and role disputes. The report then explores the impact of conflicts on nursing teams, emphasizing how they can clarify roles, improve communication, and address unethical behaviors. Furthermore, the report discusses two key strategies for conflict management: collaboration, which promotes a win-win situation and considers the needs of all parties, and accommodating, where one party yields to foster cooperation. The report concludes by reiterating the importance of utilizing conflicts as opportunities for understanding and improvement, advocating for the implementation of effective conflict resolution strategies to enhance healthcare delivery.

Running Head: MANAGING CONFLICT RESOLUTION 1
Managing Conflict Resolution
Name of Student
Name of Institution
Date of Submission

MANAGING CONFLICT RESOLUTION 2
Managing Conflict Resolution
Introduction
Conflicts are frequent incidences in health facilities owing to the diversity of nurses
in terms of; backgrounds, values, and priorities (Higazee, 2015 p.3). As opposed to the
ordinary stereotype that conflicts result in negative outcomes, nurses should exploit conflicts
as the premises for enhancing cohesion and boosting the quality of healthcare. Many times, a
graduate registered nurse can find himself or herself in the center of conflicts because of the
complications associated with adapting to the clinical environment (Lahana et al, 2019 p.35).
Conflicts among graduate registered nurses are commonly caused by overwhelming tasks,
miscommunication, and flawed ethical regulations in a healthcare facility. In this paper, a
discussion is provided detailing the strategies which can be applied to solve such intra-
professional conflicts in a health facility.
Intra-Professional Conflict Situations in a Clinical Environment
Conflict can be described as a serious dispute between two or more parties (Sili et al,
2014 p.17). The motivations for such conflicts might be varied and the resulting outcomes
can either be constructive or destructive. On the other hand, intra-professional conflict refers
to disagreements which arise between parties within the same profession (Higazee, 2015). In
common practice, intra-professional conflicts occur in organizations such as health facilities,
schools, and companies. In the context of clinical environments, intra-professional conflicts
are common among graduate registered nurses and their senior counterparts (Jung & Kang,
2014 p.345). Some of the prevalent sources of such altercations include; communication
problems among nurses, flaws in the organizational structure of a health facility, roles
disputes, inadequacy of medical resources, frequent misunderstandings, and general lack of
professional commitment (Cherry & Jacob, 2016 p.39).

MANAGING CONFLICT RESOLUTION 3
How Conflicts Influence and Impact Nursing Teams
Intra-professional conflicts are inevitable in any health facility. As such, it is
preferable for the hospital administrators to implement strategies which can be exploited to
achieve collaboration and assertiveness whenever such conflicts occur (Chan, Sit & Lau,
2014 p.936). In so doing, a graduate registered nurse who experiences intra-professional
conflicts in his or her health facility can be impacted in the following ways. Firstly, the
conflicts can lead to proper distinction of ambiguous roles which have been causing endless
conflicts within the health facility (Chan, Sit & Lau, 2014 p.937).
Secondly, conflicts can expose the flaws in the communication system of a health
organization thereby facilitating the implementation a new reliable network (Jimenez-Herrera
& Axelsson, 2015 p.549). This can enhance efficient communication thereby promoting
conflict resolution among the disputing nurses. Thirdly, conflicts among graduate registered
nurses can help in solving contentions which normally occur due to varying ambitions among
the health workers (Shacklock & Brunetto, 2012 p.37). Lastly, intra-professional disputes in
clinical environments can expose unethical behaviours in a health facility thereby
necessitating a call for action. This can include the establishment of a properly defined code
of ethics to guide the operations of a hospital.
Strategies for Managing Conflict
There are two preferential strategies for solving conflicts in a clinical environment
namely; collaboration and accommodating. To start with, collaboration is a conflict
management technique which leads to a win-win situation (Clark, Ahten & Macy, 2014
p.427). Collaboration is widely recognized as a reasonable and harmonious strategy of
resolving conflicts among graduate registered nurses because it eliminates frustrations and
anger (Clark, Ahten & Macy, 2014 p.430). In this strategy, the feelings and desires of the

MANAGING CONFLICT RESOLUTION 4
conflicting nurses are taken into consideration and evaluated intensively before setting new
goals which are mutually agreed by the involved nurses.
Collaboration is considered as an advanced method of conflict resolution because it
works to maximize cooperation and assertiveness among the disagreeing nurses (Elena &
Becerro, 2012 p.74). When implemented, collaboration ensures that all the interests of the
conflicting nurses are evaluated and that a common goal is attained. Accordingly,
collaboration promotes cohesion by objectively analysing the differing opinions of each nurse
(Hartog & Benbenishty, 2015 p.331). Such objectivity eliminates bias and prejudice which
might influence undue favour to one of the conflicting nurses. In other words, collaboration
allows each nurse to maintain his or her assertiveness while also working towards a common
goal (Hartog & Benbenishty, 2015 p.332).
Secondly, a graduate registered nurse can rely on a strategy called accommodating.
This is whereby, one nurse relents to the wishes or instructions of his or her colleague while
promising to continue working together (Almost et al, 2016 p.1493). When a nurse is
implementing the strategy of accommodating, he or she is expected to be more collaborative
and less assertive. Therefore, conflict resolution is enhanced when the graduate registered
nurse accepts the demands of another nurse as a way of fostering collaboration and cohesion
in a health facility (Hart, Brannan & De Chesnay, 2014 p.276). While applying this
technique, a graduate registered nurse is expected to observe a high level of care so that he or
she does not become overly submissive. This is because, when a particular threshold is
surpassed, the relenting nurse becomes suppressed to the extent of being inferior to his or her
colleagues.
Accommodating is a very gracious strategy because it helps a nurse to realize his or
her mistakes. The submitting nurse accepts his or her faults and promises to combine efforts

MANAGING CONFLICT RESOLUTION 5
with other members of staff hence improving the quality of healthcare (Labrague &
McEnroe–Petitte, 2017 p.47). However, this method is not entirely beneficial because
sometimes, a graduate registered nurse might be compelled to admit to the demands of
another nurse even if the conditions are against his or her will (Lux, Hutcheson & Peden,
2014 p.39). In this case, a situation arises whereby the submitting nurse is collaborative but
not assertive. The situation can give autonomous power to the commanding nurse while
overshadowing the opinions of a graduate registered nurse (Lux, Hutcheson & Peden, 2014
p.40). Therefore, the conflicting nurses are expected to maintain reasonable level of care
when accommodating the opinion of others so that hospital operations can continue
harmoniously without infringing the role of another.
Conclusion
From the discussion, it was noted that conflicts are very common incidences in
clinical environments due to the diversity of nurses in terms of backgrounds, values, and
priorities. While conflicts are always perceived negatively, they should be utilized as
premises for understanding the root causes of disagreements thereby formulating cohesion
and strategies of promoting the quality of healthcare in a health facility. Accordingly, it was
observed that conflicts occur due to; communication problems among nurses, flaws in the
organizational system, roles disputes, inadequacy of medical resources, and frequent
misunderstandings. The discussion also highlighted that conflict resolution can enhance;
proper distinction of ambiguous roles, identification of the flaws in the communication
system, and exposure of unethical behaviours in a health facility. Finally, two strategies of
conflict resolution were discussed as; firstly, collaboration because it eliminates frustrations
and anger while taking into consideration the feelings or desires of the conflicting parties.
Secondly, accommodating was chosen because this strategy enhances harmony and

MANAGING CONFLICT RESOLUTION 6
collaboration in a health facility, especially where a graduate registered nurse realizes that he
or she is wrong.

MANAGING CONFLICT RESOLUTION 7
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