Conflict is a leading issue that occurs in all organizations particularly where continuous communication between people take place. According to Higazee (2015) clinicians serve in different roles, including caregiver, educator, and manager. These duties result in multiple types of interactions between nurses and other healthcare co-workers, which fundamentally alleviates the possibility for conflict to emerge in the hospital environment among care providers (Higazee, 2015). Conflict is an intense process that might be positive or negative in the workplace. Conflicts emerge for multiple reasons: they may arise owing to competition between employees and differences in economic and professional values. According to Ramsay (2001) conflicts can vary from disputes to significant controversies that can result in lawsuit or violence. Conflicts have severe effects on output, morale, and patient care. They might lead to high workforce turnovers and indeed limit employees’ contributions and obstruct efficiency (Higazee, 2015). A lawsuit is now readily available for those who think they are working in a hostile work setting. The hostile environment can be the consequence of abusive behavior other workers, managers, or doctors. Clinicians as other healthcare experts provide varying perceptions to the healthcare team members to deliver quality and safe patient care. These multiple views may at times result in conflicts among caregivers and physicians concerning the patient’s care schedule. Furthermore, stress workplace may be the source of tension, miscommunication, and conflict, not only between caregivers but patients too (Higazee, 2015). As conflicts are part of the hospital environment particularly for nurses and owing to its negative results if poorly handled; it can exacerbate the situation.
Recurring Conflict with The Potential to Negatively Impact Patient Care
According to Ferri et al. (2016), one of the most common and recurrent conflicts is shift woes. The work environment for nursing requires caregivers to work round the clock. Necessarily, each patient requires the attention of the nurse to be available at all times and thus implying segregation of duties based on time. Nurses are often needed to work more long hours, and it might be as a result of being short-staffed or management cutting costs. Whichever the reason, clinicians, work longer than they are supposed to. In such working environments, one caregiver might feel that his or her co-worker does not do enough for the patient who demands attention during day and night. He or she might think that poor-quality and a messy job was done during the night which is discouraging and thus causes serious disagreements. In contrast, the clinician accountable for the night shift can feel overwhelmed by the unconducive night working environment and thereby feel that he or she is overworked. These thoughts of dissatisfaction among nurses will finally trigger a conflict that will undoubtedly impact the provision of safe and quality care to the patient. Conflict arising from shifts demonstrate a scarcity in the delegation of roles. Another cause of conflict concerning shift woes is poor time management between day and night shifts. In the event of an argument, the caregiver on night shift can arrive late contrary to the set rules of work hence causing delay and overworking the clinician on the day shift. This can result in poor service delivery to patients by the exasperated and delayed nurse and thus instigate conflict (Ferri et al., 2016).
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Details of what Happened
As a cardiac nurse, I have seen the conflict in the same scenario as discussed above in Northwestern Memorial Hospital in the inpatient emergency department in which front nurses have to receive inpatient patient that need emergency care and first aids. In that scenario, the disagreement was caused by continuance in the late coming of the care providers on the day shift which resulted in the revelation of many non-performance matters when the altercation occurred. In most cases, seldom have I ever worked at the health facility on day shift, but the situation here has always proved to suggest a seamless flow of operations; nevertheless, this day was first to work at day shift, and the occurrence of things appeared uncommon to my eyes. In contrast to my expectation of the inpatient emergency department, there appeared to be work slowdown. It did not last before three groups of clinicians angrily engaged one another in a disagreement that implied irresponsibility on the part of the day shift caregivers who were blamed for poor service provision, negligence, and poor time management. By contrast, in their heated fight, the day shift nurses asserted that the reason for them being late for their shift is that the day shift is more engaging and extremely demanding than night duty and this the day shift care providers needed some more time to rest and prepare for the arduous job at daytime. This gave me a better understanding of the explanation for the unique look of things. The dispute between the caregivers lasted for over ten minutes before the day duty nurses took over from them. The seriousness of this example was that there nobody senior, such as the day supervisor to reconcile the groups which left the patients no other option aside from assuming the role of arbitrating the conflicting parties.
Identify the Kind of Conflict and Explain the Rationale for Selecting this Type
The type of conflict demonstrated in the case study is intergroup conflict. Intergroup conflict stems from the pervasive and automatic tendency of an individual to categorize themselves and others regarding in-group division and the role that ingroups play in influencing individuals responses to threats of all kinds. The example of the stalemate between the three groups of nurses shows misunderstanding as the cause of disagreement. The three groups of clinicians have a negative attitude toward one another, and all parties believe that their actions are justified which makes it's more problematic to resolve the rivalry between themselves.
Outline the Four Stages of The Conflict, As Described in Our Text
Conflict exists everywhere, and the only way to solve conflict is to, first identify conflict by knowing the stages of the conflict. There are five stages of the conflict, but authors such as Finkelman (2016) condenses them into four categories, including:
Latent phase. In this stage, individuals can be in a conflict without being aware that they are in conflict (Pondy, 2009). The structure of the organization can spur conflict via things, including reward programs and the leadership styles used within the organization. The administrative structure of Northwestern Memorial Hospital could have influenced the clinicians’ disagreement. There are unproductive internal forces concerning management of the human resource department in both day and night shifts which affect communication amongst the conflicting parties entirely.
The perceived stage is when the individuals involved in conflict understand the existence of a conflict, so this is apparent when Northwestern Memorial Hospital caregivers on night shift confront their day shift co-workers, and each group lays its issue to one other.
Felt stage. Pondy (200) states that this stage stress and anxiousness are felt by one or more of the people involved owing to the conflict, the management does not enjoy causing conflict, and the worker dislikes being under surveillance. This is the case among the conflicting nurses in Northwestern Memorial Hospital are stressed out and feel some anxiety after the confrontation.
Manifest stage involves the conflict that might be witnessed. When the management goes over speak with the day nurses about it, others view the conflict, and it has manifested.
Strategies to Resolve the Conflict
According to Huhman (2014) working on a compromise successful conflict resolution strategy. For it to be effective, communication must be influenced by an unbiased party such as the management to deal with the issues of each group neutrally. In general, it can prove problematic for conflicting parties to solve the problems they are currently facing. In such a situation, mediation caused by an impartial party becomes of the most effective strategy. Nevertheless, if the concerned people hold grudges towards each other, they must be asked to comprise to resolve the issue (Huhman, 2014).
Collaborating with A Nurse Leader
I would collaborate with the nurse leader by offering advice on compromise as the strategy to facilitate conflict resolution. As such, the nursing leader will ask the conflicting parties to present little and take little by organizing an agreement between them. Moreover, the leader will ask the aggrieved parties to come with their bargain and discuss the problem through with them, giving potential compromise and permitting the groups to ponder these alternatives over.
The Rationale for Selecting the Best Strategy
The strategy must align with organizational policies and guidelines as regards conflict management. The conflict resolution strategy chosen must also show impartiality and fairness to the aggrieved members instead of selecting one group’s interests over the other. As a result, this could prevent the possibility that any employee feels slighted by the manner in which the conflict was resolved. Besides, it adds effectiveness to the performance of the establishment.
Conclusion
Conflict is inevitable in human life. It is also unavoidable in organizations or even between countries. Conflicts are an integral part of an individual’s as well as organizations life. Intergroup and competitive conflicts have shared some relationship as both emerge between nurses. In recent years, attitudes towards conflict have significantly shifted (Marquis &Huston, 2012). Today, caregiver supervisors perceive conflict as a natural phenomenon that might exist in any organization. Irrespective of the manner in which conflict is treated by care providers; conflicts have consequences which impacts professionals as well as patients in the organization either positively or negatively. Furthermore, inappropriately dealt with conflicts result in adverse outcomes for nurses, patients and the organization (Higazee, 2015).
Managing conflicts is an inevitable part of nearly any career, and the distinctive nature of the nurse may make conflicts more common and more essential to manage than those in other disciplines. To this end, effective conflict management must reflect conflict as a normal process in which socially valuable changes register themselves for the improvement for all involved (Marquis &Huston, 2012). As conflict resolution skills lead to better synergy, people can rest assured about their success when they have mastered these skills. One way to achieve effective conflict management is developing structures, policies, and guidelines that guide the smooth running of the organization. As a result, this can eliminate issues including poor time management and irresponsibility. Furthermore, the organization requires to come up with a collaborative culture and team spirit on top of successful management program which plays an essential role in curbing conflict within the organization. This is the approach that Northwestern Memorial Hospital must espouse in conflict management.
References
Ferri, P., Guadi, M., Marcheselli, L., Balduzzi, S., Magnani, D., & Lorenzo, R.D. (2016). The impact of shift work on the psychological and physical health of nurses in a general hospital: a comparison between rotating night shifts and day shifts. Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, 9, 203-211.
Finkelman, A. (2016). Leadership and management for nurses: Core Competencies for quality care (3rd ed). Boston, MA: Pearson
Higazee, Z.A. (2015). “Types and Levels of Conflicts Experienced by Nurses in the Hospital Settings.” Health Science Journal , 9(67), 1-6.
Huhman, H. R. (2014). 4 Strategies for Reducing Workplace Conflict. Entrepreneur. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/241199
Marquis, B.L., &Huston, C.J. (2012) Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application (7th ed) . Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, Philadelphia.
Pondy. L. R. (2009). Organizational Conflict: Concepts and Models. Retrieved from http://www-personal.umich.edu/~lroot/ConflictMgtConceptMap/Pondy- Organizational-Conflict-1967.pdf
Ramsay, M.A. (2001). “Conflict in the healthcare workplace.” Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings , 1492), 138-139.
