Managing Conflict In Nursing

Leadership and management of conflict coexist. “One’s leadership style defines one’s response to conflicts” (Waite & McKinney, p.123, 2014). “A transformational leader is more accommodating, transactional leader is more compromising and laissez-faire leader is more avoiding when managing conflicts” (Almas, Anis-ul-Haq, Niaz & Saeed, p.214, 2015).
Conflict is inevitable in the nursing profession, some may even consider it a normal part of the profession (Waite et al., 2014). Ogenyemi and colleague (as cited in Waite et al., 2014) the delivery of patient care uses a multidisciplinary approach making nurse more susceptible to conflict (p.126). Conflict that a nurse may experience can be either: nurse/nurse, nurse/doctor, patient/nurse and expressive/instrumental (Grohar-Murray & Langan, 2011).
Nurses care for patient is a very “demanding environment, hierarchies, prolonged work hours, multiple roles and emotional demands” (Waite et al., p. 126, 2014). When conflict arises, it can be emotionally stressful for the nurse, “which can lead to ineffective patient care compromising patient safety” (Klinkhamer, p.337, 2015) negatively impacting the healthcare organization’s reputation.
Even though leadership style defines how management deal with conflict, it is standard in some institutional for management to have an
open-door policy. An open-door policy is a proactive measure hospital administration used to manage conflict which, allow nurses to walk into the manager’s office without an appointment to discuss a problem (Klinkhamer, 2015). Mahon and Nicotera (as cited in Klinkhamer, 2015) nurses generally prefer to report the conflict to their manager, rather than confronting the other person involved (p. 339), timing is everything when confronting a problem co-worker, due to the possibility of personality colliding (Klinkhamer, 2015).

Leaders ability to resolve conflict is essential to the nursing profession, because the conflict between nurses, doctors and patient are inevitable.
The ability of a leader to resolve conflict is a learned skill (Klinkhamer, 2015) “which is foundational to supporting the nurse morale, decreasing nurse turnover, and diminishing lawsuits” (Waite et al., p.123, 2014). Northam (as cited in Klinkhamer, 2015) highlight the importance of training nurse to identify and manage conflict amongst themselves before it escalates (p.339) which, can be poor interpersonal relationship, unclear roles, differing expectation, and an imbalance of power (Klinhamer, p.338,
2015).
“Conflict is neither negative or positive, but can highlight reasons for social change within the nurse work environment “(Waite et al., p.123, 2014). Conflict management needs to be added to nurses annual competencies which should include a role play check off. Evans and Curtis (as cited by Klinhamer, 2015) conflict management is an art which takes time and practice to master (p.339). Annual competency and role play can build confidence in the nurse experiencing conflict to try and resolve the conflict with the other person involve first, then if unsuccessful follow the chain of command to report the issue with the hopes of a resolution (Klinhamer, 2015). Nurse leadership with great “conflict management skills are essential to the wellbeing and safety of the nursing staff, the patient” and the hospital reputation (Klinhamer, p.337, 2015).