Leadership & Management: Conflict Resolution Strategies for Nurses

This report examines conflict resolution strategies within nursing, emphasizing the roles of nurse leaders and managers in fostering a smooth working environment to promote patient care. It identifies common types of conflicts, including interpersonal, intergroup, and interprofessional conflicts, and discusses various resolution strategies such as direct negotiation, mediation, effective communication, and apologies. The report also explores factors leading to conflicts, such as organizational structure, communication problems, lack of resources, and personal differences, highlighting the importance of effective communication skills for nurses. Furthermore, it addresses the implications of conflict resolution for improving clinical practice, patient care, and overall quality outcomes in hospitals, underscoring the vital role of nurse managers in identifying, analyzing, and resolving conflicts to prevent service interference. Desklib offers a variety of similar solved assignments and study resources to support nursing students and professionals.

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
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