NR 447 Week 3 Assignment – Conflict Resolution Paper

NR 447 Week 3 Assignment – Conflict Resolution Paper

In our daily lives, conflicts are unavoidable, and it is part of life; neither can we avoid nor we can accept them; we must deal with them daily. “Conflict can arise between individuals or multiple people due to intergroup or intergroup incompatibility, disagreement, or dissonance” (Grubaugh & Flynn, 2018, p. 383). Conflict may occur when that is not acceptable, and habitually it is caused by poor communication, not proper delegation, not appreciation of other obligations, and other multiple circumstances in our daily lives. Everyone has different characters and viewpoints to deal with situations, but deliberating how to spread the work conflict and/or keep away from the fence to Conflict is vitally important to reduce tension. Every individual’s character differences or clashes in sentiment may cause conflicts. Conflicts occur when two groups or individuals react in the same condition and see the circumstances as unlikely because of unlike sets of surroundings, information concern to the general circumstance, recognition, nature, cause, or point of view. As mentioned, conflicts are unavoidable, but situations can be managed and handled properly among workers with proper communications and orders before it develops into significant Conflict.

The Problem

Since I work at a rehabilitation hospital as a Registered Nurse, my daily work routine also faces problems like the short staff and workload balance among nurses. This is a very critical issue and has a direct impact on the patient’s health care, so it cannot be taken lightly. Due to the cancellation of staff and not proper delegation and the high workload, the patient and nurse ratio is 10:1; out of ten patients, some of the high fall risk and 1:1 supervision, the registered nurse needs to do admission and discharge too. As registered nurse tries their best to supply all essential care for patients, but issues like short staff and uneven workload balance creates a stressful environment for nurses causing burnout that results in insufficient care for patients. The nurse performances also slow down because of burnout from overload, and patients may not receive full care from nurses. The standard care and security of patient care are straight interconnected to the numeral of nurses and their expertness in the nursing profession. However, the management of facilities is not showing any efforts to increase the staff resources; the units are forced to work with limited resources (Welton, 2007).

The primary cause for conflict among staff is miss communication, unbalanced workload, strikeouts, and short staff, which leads to disrespect, verbal attacks toward each other, and finding fault in other ideas. Many registered nurses are forced to leave their jobs because of these conflicts, and it’s very challenging for them to balance work and their personal life. However, the management team doesn’t seem to be much concerned about possible conflicts and presumes the situation with the best level of care.

Conflicts can be managed and controlled in the facilities with a proper direction and plan. Usually, the most common reasons for conflicts are when things are not going in the right way or unable to tolerate the situation. In work, the common scenario for Conflict arises when a worker feels unrewarded for being overworked, and management does not show concern and acknowledge it. This work environment creates a hostile situation where staff cannot deliver their full potential and resulting in poor management and care of the patients (Finkelman, 2016).

NR 447 Week 3 Assignment – Conflict Resolution Paper

The Four Stages of Conflict

Usually, it is noticed that Conflict arises in the latent stage, and such conflicts are noticed by the supervisor or unit. The supervisor has work details from all shifts and can see possible conflicts or issues in a team if there are any. The nurses/workers are constantly taking care of the patient and cannot analyze or resolve conflicts that are happening. On average, we have ten patients per nurse; also, the day shift nurse has additional jobs like discharging patients, and the night shift nurse has additional jobs like taking discharge photos (wounds) of a patient. During shift change course between day and night nurses, there might be miscommunication among changers. The night shift may miss a few items, and the day shift might miss a few items from the patient’s checklist because of workload and burnout. For instance, night shift nurses may not take wound photos of discharged patients (wounds) or other patient tasks. This is a concern for the day shift nurse, and night shift nurses may have missed because of overload and burnout. But, supervisors and managers don’t seem to be much concerned about the nurse-to-patient ratio.

Conflict is recognized in the perceived stage. Usually, workers seem to be aware of conflict situations but not out-speaking and acknowledging it. Conflict related to all hospital staff and patient safety can be considered a serious conflict. We, as registered nurses, have a lot of nurse work already, but PRN just works once a month. PRN is not fully aware of current patient situations. This can be considered as major miss communication gap between PRN and staff nurses in the facility. As a result, PRN may not be fully cooperative and can provide effective care for patients. It’s hard for a supervisor to manage such a situation among staff. The management is unaware of such gaps with staff, and eventually, it might lead to Conflict. The mass communication and longer time gap can bring more loads to staff nurses. As a result, they burn out easily. Also, many registered Nurses leave the job because of the workload and improper staffing. Therefore, management should play an important role in managing such situations by discussing the problem openly and encouraging staff to be more verbal about the problems.

The felt Conflict is described as when the staffs begin to feel it directly, and it starts impacting them in their job roles, and staff feels unnecessary anxiety, stress, and frustration in the work environment (Finkelman, 2016). Sometimes the work environment can be very challenging, and long shifts can easily burnout nurses. Despite all the conflicts and challenges, the top priority of the nurse is to take care of patients. As a leader, communication and delegation right way is very important and essential; if we do not verbalize the issues to management, they may not concern with resolving the Conflict as well. So, communication is vital to provide information among staff. Conflict is part of life, but early communication and discussion can resolve Conflict easily. “Nurse leaders need to communicate at many levels with many different kinds of people; knowing how and when to communicate are essential skills” (Chamberlain College of Nursing, 2019).

The manifest stage of Conflict is not following policies, rules, responsibility, or expressing views openly; this stage is harmful because, at this point, the staffs seem to be very early frustrated and cannot manage or control their conflicts. When a worker gets to this stage, it is best to do open discussions with co-workers and management. All the staff of the facility should work as a team and support each other. If an unavoidable conflict comes across the team, it is best to consult with the supervisor and management and take their suggestions. But if a team member neglects the situation, then they are endangering their work environment as well as the patient’s life.

All four conflict stages are mashed in the rehabilitation hospital. If I had to choose one, then it would be manifest Conflict because staff members display hostile behaviors, such as not respecting each other, talking negatively, short cutting care to the patient. Teamwork always works, now less turnover in work and Nurse and patient ratio7:1, and we have admission, discharge nurse, and wound care nurse. Good teamwork and good communication always solve the problem.

NR 447 Week 3 Assignment – Conflict Resolution Paper

Strategy for Dealing with Conflict

The key strategy for dealing with Conflict is communication. The proper effective meeting should be made among co-workers, managers, and directors for open discussion of problems and finding a solution accordingly. Before the meeting, I would do pre-work and research the root causes of Conflict and present the possible solution agendas to the team. I would present them with the value of teamwork, knowledge sharing among staff, working co-operatively, team discussion, and improvement to increase patient care more effectively(Jerng, Huang, Liang, Chen, Lin, Huang, & Sun, 2017). I would provide the details of the current work situation and explain how team collaboration is the best strategy to solve the Conflict, like short staff, good communication, and talking with management to use to bring their awareness. People complain about staffing but never get time to talk about the right person. To speak positively, face-to-face with the right person at the right time will solve the Conflict easily.

Delegation

The chain of command should be clearly understood by each staff in the department. Otherwise, communication goes haphazard. First, we must contact the supervisor if anything happens, but sometimes the supervisor avoids the situation. The schedule co-coordinator and nurse manager make the scheduling; sometimes, they put the wrong person in the schedule without communication we must stay late until they find another nurse to work. Proper delegation is very important to run work smoothly without Conflict. Nurse managers who make the schedule should be flexible and rectify the situation to reduce short staffing to make our patient safety and get good care.

Conclusion

Conflict is unavoidable; Conflict is part of life, and there is good and bad Conflict; it depends on how you deal with the situation with Conflict and makes yourself feel comfortable at work. The workplace line of communication should be open and clearly understood by each party, which helps us to avoid Conflict. Conflict should never ignore; otherwise, anxiety, stress, and frustration lead to hostile behavior. Confrontation positively and professionally, so that issue will be taken gravely.

References

Chamberlain College of Nursing, (2019). NR- 447 Week 3: Effective communication[ online lesson]. Downers Grove, IL: Adtalem.

Finkelman, A. (2016). Leadership and management for nurses: Core competencies for quality care (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson

Grubaugh, M. L., & Flynn, L. (2018). Relationships among nurse manager leadership skills, conflict management, and unit teamwork. Journal of Nursing Administration, 48(7–8), 383–388. https://doi- org.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/10.1097/NNA.0000000000000633

Jerng, J., Huang, S., Liang, H., Chen, L., Lin, C., Huang, H., & Sun, J. (2017). Workplace interpersonal conflicts among the healthcare workers: Retrospective exploration from the institutional incident reporting system of a university-affiliated medical center. Plos ONE, 12(2), 1-13. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0171696

Welton, J. (2007). Mandatory Hospital Nurse to Patient Staffing Ratios: Time to Take a Different Approach. Retrieved March 18, 2017, from http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPerio decals/OJIN/TableofContents/Volume122007/No3Sept07/MandatoryNursetoPatie ntRatios.html

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The purpose of this Assignment is to learn how to identify and effectively manage conflicts that arise in care delivery settings resulting in better management of patient care, including appropriate delegation. You will gain insight into conflict management strategies and develop a plan to collaborate with a potential nurse leader about the conflict and its impact in a practice setting.