Conflict Resolution Paper Coursework Example

Conflict Resolution
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Conflicts are quite common in nursing settings. This is due to the continuous human interaction that occurs in hospitals. Nurses have different roles in a hospital ranging from an educator, caregiver or manager. Depending on their roles there are various interactions between nurses themselves and also nurses with other medical caregivers. This is bound to cause different types of conflicts in a hospital setting. The stressful and emotional conditions that they work in is also a contributor to conflict. Nurses experience numerous types of conflict including shift woes, prioritizing task and the high demand nature of the job. These conflicts need to be solved immediately as they are a pressing problem in the work environment. Unresolved issues can affect patients’ care and hence the need to resolve conflicts and hence ensure productivity. This paper will identify one recurring conflict in a nurse care delivery setting, analyze it and identify the best strategy for solving the conflict and prevent recurring of such crisis.
Nurses are expected to work around the clock to give care to patients. Due to this, it is a common occurrence for them to work in shifts, day, evening and night. Different hospitals have different shift patterns for their nurses. Night shift is the most dreaded of all these shifts. It is said to cause psychological problems to the nurses. They are also subjective to a state of fatigue which further affects their performance and moods.

This change is shifting leads to one patient being taken care of by up to three nurses in a day. This has been known to be a major source of conflicts between nurses.
It is common in a hospital setting to have one nurse handling a patient during the day and another one handling the same patient during might time. No two nurses work in the same way. There are situations in which one nurse is dissatisfied with the professional work of their colleagues. It is quite common for one of the nurses to view the other as disorganized as they leave the work area disorganized and chaotic. There is also that sense that the duties during night shift are more demanding than those in the daytime shift. This brings conflict between nurses.
This conflict is always recurring. There are numerous arguments between the night shift nurses and the daytime shift nurses. They all view the duties of the other group as being less demanding and hence demand that they do more. The complaining has been passed to the head nurse to help in solving the problem and hence ensure that patient care is of the highest quality.
It is important to resolve the conflict as soon as possible and ensure it doesn’t recur. Constant recurring of conflict can lead to mistrust, loss of staff, ineffective collaboration and this might end up affecting the quality of healthcare given to patients. The quality of healthcare received by the patient is determined by the ability of the healthcare team to communicate and work together without conflict. The first step in solving a conflict is to understand the cause of the conflict. Conflict can be caused by competition for resources of inefficient communication between staff members. Understanding the cause of conflict can easily be done through the four stages of the conflict.
According to Finkelman, the four stages of conflict include Latent, perceived, felt and manifest. In the case of shift woes, the conflict started with differences in the view of the different shifts. This was the latent stage. The conflict was perceived when the head of nurses noticed that there was a problem in communication between nurses in the day shift and those in the night shift. In the felt stage, there were constant complains from both sides stating that they were doing more demanding work as compared to their counterpart. The conflict was then manifested when nurses started yelling in the hallway (Finkelman, 2016).
A closer look at the conflict, delegation can be blamed as one of the causes of this conflict. Many nurses are stretched to the limit due to the chaotic nature of the healthcare environment. There is an increase in the number of people who need healthcare leading to a tremendous demand for nursing care. The lack of an effective plan to work with assistive personnel can be linked to the distribution of work to staff members at a specific period.
According to numerous studies, nurse managers spend up to 40% of their time dealing with conflict (Cohen, 2014). This necessitates the need for all hospitals to enact conflict resolution strategies that will ensure conflicts are addressed productively. Numerous studies have been done to understand how people respond to conflict. The Thomas Killman Instrument is one tool that has been developed identify the fives styles that can be used to solve the conflict; accommodating, collaborating, compromising, competing and avoiding (Thomas & Kilman, 2009). These styles work depending on how an individual reacts while they experience conflict.
Conflicts do not go away, and hence it is important to come up with techniques to prevent them. Establishing open communication between the staff and their leaders is quite important, as they will have a way of reporting their issues to the leader who will come up with ways of solving them. The policies and procedures, roles and responsibilities of nurses, should be made public to everyone. Ground rules should be established with leaders acting as the coach to handle the staff and educate them on proper and improper behaviors (Johansen, 2012).
Another known strategy for conflict resolution is nurses adhering to participate in dialogue based on leadership style. Leaders are taught leadership skills that they use to influence their collaborators. This allows for the use of democracy, in that the nurses are given the ability to make decisions on the best work shift timetable that will suit all of them. Through the introduction of democracy in the workplace, individuals view themselves as the system and hence can come up with strategies that work in solving their problems.
It is the role of leaders in culture conflict resolution in the work environment. They should establish solutions that shift from a culture of avoidance and resolution tactics that are not long lasting to solutions that are professional and allow for personal growth and respect among staff. Leaders should assess the ability to handle conflicts through staff meetings and lunches. This will ensure that they can work as a team and develop strategies for conflict resolutions that are healthy.
One effective strategy for conflict resolutions is a negotiation. Though the process of negotiation, all the parties are equal and hence participate in the conflict resolution. They are questioned to clarify the root of the problems. Negotiation also allows for the team to come up with a solution that favors all of them and hence ensure peace prevails. Effective communication is paramount for conflict resolutions. During the negotiation, the conversation should be slow, the voice low and modulated with all participants in a relaxed manner (Wachs, 2008).
There are numerous human interactions in the work environment, mostly in a hospital setting. Nurse’s duties are increasingly becoming tedious due to the increase in human traffic in hospitals. Most hospitals also lack proper delegation methods that will ensure effective management of work time and rest. All these issues, coupled up with emotional and personal baggage, conflict is quite easy to occur between nurses. One common conflict is between nurses themselves. There is a huge conflict between nurses in the day shift and night shift. They view the working conditions as being different and hence better off for their counterparts. Understanding the cause of conflict if the first step in solving the conflict. This can be achieved by following the four stages of the conflict, latent, perceived, felt and manifest. Once the cause has been identified it is important to resolve the conflict to prevent recurrence of the conflict and provide a favorable working environment. Strategies then have to be enacted to the hospital system that will ensure efficient resolution of the problem and that it doesn’t recur in the future. Nurse leader must spearhead the process of conflict resolution between her/his staff. Solving conflicts ensures that the working environment is safe. It also leads to better health services to the patients.

References
Cohen, S. (2014). Resolving Conflict by Setting Ground Rules. Nursing Management, 17-21.
Finkelman, A. (2016). Leadership and Management for Nurses. Boston: Pearson.
Johansen, M. L. (2012). Keeping the peace: Conflict management strategies for nurse managers. Nursing Management, 50-54.
Thomas, K. W., & Kilman, R. H. (2009). An Overview of the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI). Retrieved from Kilmann Diagnostics: http://www.kilmanndiagnostics.com/overview-thomas-kilmann-conflict-mode-instrument-tki
Wachs, S. R. (2008). Put Conflict Resolution Skills to Work. J Oncol Pract., 37-40.