The Developing Conflict Management Skills in the Hospital - Essay Example

 Leadership I am Susan and newly promoted sister. I have been assigned to lead a new oncology ward in the hospital. I will be in charge of coordinating efforts of doctors, radiotherapists, nurses, counselors and supporting staff as they administer medication and care to patients. Oncology ward is a hospital ward where people suffering from cancer are treated and cared for. Cancer affects nearly all parts of the body including the bone marrow, throat, lung, prostate and breast among many others (refer to appendix III). Cancer patients and their families undergo a lot of stress as they try to come to terms with the debilitating disease. In the oncology ward, patients are given day-stay infusion, blood transfusion, chemotherapy and stem cell transplants among others. Oncology ward is one of the stressing and disturbing wards to work in. Therefore, it is my deep desire to create and nurture a solid team of effective and efficient staff of the oncology ward to help patients and other people cope with challenging ward conditions. I will be in charge of thirty oncology staff specialists made up of nurses, oncology doctors and care workers. The overall function of the oncology ward include administration of treatment, care and education to patients; monitoring and observing patients; offering therapeutic healing to patients/ families/ friends; staff training and supporting hospital staff as well as performing administrative tasks. The oncology ward needs to be quiet, relaxing and clean. It should be managed by sensible and caring staff. The oncology ward needs strengthening to be successful. Therefore, I need to be an effective leader who can inspire, empower and direct a successful team. Democratic, laisser-faire and authoritative leadership approaches are some of the leadership styles that I can apply to leading the ward. As a newly appointed leader, I choose democratic leadership style over authoritative leadership because of various reasons. According to Pride et al (2009, p. 179), authoritative leadership style presumes that the leader has and exercise absolute authority and responsibility in all functions of an organization. The leader is assumed to have all the skills, knowledge and strategies of handling organizational functions as well as accompanying challenges. Authoritative leader assign specific tasks to followers who are expected to be orderly and accurate in performing their tasks. Supervision is intense and communication moves from top to bottom. Authoritative leadership style works best when the leader has all the necessary information about organizational tasks and there is little time to make decisions. However, the style works for a short time and can only work for motivated employees. Authoritative leadership style cannot work in the oncology ward because it stifles staff initiative and creativity. I do not believe that oncology ward staff is ignorant. Instead, they like responsibility, have ambition, are creative and hard working. I trust them to do what is right. Furthermore, I do not have the qualities of authoritative leaders such as arrogance, ego, hostility or boastful. The oncology ward is neither a prison nor a military institution. Therefore, democratic leadership style is most appropriate. This is because staff is experienced and competent to pursue their roles and responsibilities appropriately (Brennen n. d.). I am open and I would like ideas to flow freely and openly among all the employees. I would also like to develop high level of staff commitment by making the staff to decide and pursue their decisions. Furthermore, I am not a trained nurse and I will majorly require all staff contribution from the experienced and professional team to run oncology ward effectively. The environment in the oncology department is fast changing. There is advancement in drugs and technologies used to treat cancer. In addition, there is increased incidence of cancer cases, increased survival rates and escalating costs. The main disadvantage about the democratic leadership style is more time lost in making team decisions. Through democratic leadership approach, I will ensure that each team member becomes an executive and line worker at the same time. Above all, I will emphasize on team’s overall performance and the reward for team members will be the strength and success of the team. My vision is to build and maintain an effective team by December 31, 2012. An effective team can be built using three main strategies. First, I will develop my leadership skills. Second, I will develop my communication skills and third, I will develop conflict management skills. Developing leadership skills and traits Conceptualization, communication, team management, coaching and development, conflict management, relationship management and time management skills are skills necessary to make an effective leader. The skills must be accompanied by integrity, flexibility, empathy and hard work. First, I must develop conceptualization skills. Conceptualization skill is the ability to formulate visions and missions as well as corresponding strategies to achieve or attain a given state in future (Peake and Ball, 1991, p. 103). As a leader, it is important to develop a clear idea about the direction which the oncology ward will go beyond the year 2012. There must be a vision and missions that will guide the staff to be effective and efficient. I shall make specific assumptions about the future and take concrete steps to influence the future positively. This requires development of objectives and strategies to achieve them. All the equipments, materials and knowledge needed shall be availed to the staff. In addition, staff will be morally supported and encouraged to develop positive attitudes needed for the implementation of the vision. In addition, monitoring and evaluation skills are essential to ensure that the strategies and actions are assessed and the objectives realized are compared with the planned objectives. The developed vision and missions must be aligned with the general direction of the hospital (Stahl 2007, P. 2-13). Furthermore, the oncology staff members will be empowered to realize the vision through training, moral support and availing career development opportunities. Secondly, I shall develop team management skills. Team work is essential to achieve the desired vision of the oncology ward. As a leader, I shall not accept anything less than team work. Each member’s skills, talents and unique personalities shall be recognized, tapped and treated as important to benefit the whole team. I shall endeavor to create and nurture team’s identity and spirit. The team shall wear identical attires (printed t-shirts and caps) at least once a week (Fridays) or on special occasions and participate in social activities quarterly. Furthermore, I shall ensure that oncology ward should have a single vision (shared sense of purposes) exhibited through working together in a common way. I shall ensure that the ideas needed to achieve the set vision are majorly generated by the team members. The team shall participate in group events such as trips to inspirational locations or picnics. If the whole team does not win, nobody wins. I shall try as much as possible not to dictate solutions to problems facing the team or insist that things should be done in my way. This will encourage the team members to participate on issues affecting them. As a leader, I will rather use ‘us’ or ‘we’ rather than ‘I’ or ‘me’ more often when pointing at accomplishments or failures to make the team members feel part of the process towards a given end (achievement). I will endeavor to build a team that will be wanted and valued in the hospital. The team shall meet for one hour weekly. The meeting is solely for encouraging and understanding each other. As the leader, I will always arrive earlier to the team meetings and arrange the room for meetings. I will visit nurses in their stations and greet them routinely. I shall try as much as possible to develop ways of helping members of the team deal with challenges they face. In addition, I seek to empower them to successfully induct patients and their close people in the medical regime. Empowered members of the oncology ward are able to built quality relationships with their patients to increase their job satisfaction (Beatty and Scott 2004, p. 6). In the oncology ward, the staff, patients and their close people face emotional challenges. Nurses, doctors and other important members of staff of oncology ward experience firsthand extreme human suffering and death. This happens as they treat and take care of the terminally ill patients. Therefore, they may experience high levels of psychological stress and despair (Wallis & Wolff, 1998, p. 62). To help the oncology staff deal with the psychological stress experience when patient dies, I will establish a support group that will provide psychological support for the group. This will give the staff an opportunity to share their grief which is experience when the patient dies. Due to the nature of the job in the oncology ward, staff especially nurses are likely to experience high burn out levels, psychological stress and isolation. I will appoint an experience facilitator to run the support group from the team to help and motivate the oncology staff. Thirdly, I shall seek to develop coaching and staff development skills. This is because developing the skills and capabilities of all the team members is extremely essential. Thomas (1995, p. 3) claimed that coaching is a process where the least experience is guided by the most experienced member of a team. Appropriate knowledge and skills are needed to ensure that the team members provide world class services. I will pursue hospital management to set aside funds, equipment and materials to train my team members to expand their capabilities. In addition, I shall try to create intellectual and emotional working environment to stimulate and encourage team members to think of themselves as world class (West and Milan, 2001: Bloom and Moir 2005). I will like to inculcate the skills and conviction for all the team members to carry on oncology ward assignments long after I leave the hospital. To motivate the team members, I will communicate my confidence in their skills, abilities and express my appreciation publicly whenever they meet or exceed patients’ expectation. This makes them give their best effort. I need to develop coping skills that enable me to live with diversity comfortably. The oncology ward team members are made up of people from diverse and unique backgrounds; different people with different perceptions and ideas; people who have their own pressures; and people with different hopes and aspirations as well as need to succeed. I will treat all people with equal dignity, understanding as well as respect. I would like to develop friendly working environment. This shall be done by using plenty of humor followed by laughter. Laughter diffuses tension and makes the team members relax. If I discover rising stress levels among any member of the team, I shall have a one on one talk with the affected person to help relieve stress. Empathy is a virtue that I must develop to be able to connect with my team members all the time. Fourth, good relationship among the oncology ward staff shall be promoted. According to Hargie (2006, p. 430), good relationship is important for smooth running of activities. Networking is critical and is based on personal power. Relationship is about dealing with people issues. I will also work hard to build and maintain quality relationships. At all times, I shall make a point of establishing contacts with oncology ward staff before and after the meetings. I will try as much as possible to meet after every two weeks with every member of the team for about one hour in a quiet room away from the ward to talk about matters that are important to them and hospital in general. This will give them an opportunity to air their concerns. As a leader, I will avoid blaming individual members of the group in case of a problem and speak to them privately on how an emerging problem needs to be resolved (Turk, 2008, p. 127). This will help to improve results and manage bad situations or conditions facing both an individual and team as a whole. Furthermore, I will attend to hopes and dreams of my team members as an indication that I value their aspirations. For example, I would look for ways in which they can make their careers better and more fulfilling. I will develop strong social support networks among staff. Stress can cause negative feelings such as anxiety, fear and anger (Seaward, 2006, p. 272). This will be detrimental to the quality of care to the patients. Stress can make the staff to act carelessly and cause serious performance errors (Lehrer et al, 2007, p. 125). Fifth, I shall develop time management skills. I need to improve on my time management skills. Time is crucial and any second lost can never be recovered. Therefore, I will develop a habit of using a day planner to allocate time to important activities. Chaos and unnecessary conflicts are time consuming and I shall try as much as possible to avoid them. However, if the problems affect my delivery of service, I will allocate some time to solve them. In addition, I shall avoid activities which are energy draining. Energy draining activities include watching a lot of television programmes than necessary, gossiping as well as reading novels and other materials. I will also try to save time as much as possible to schedule my activities appropriately and use other people to run some errands for me (Vázquez Luis, 2005, p. 5). For example, I will call my mechanic to take the car to the garage or call the doctors and other members of the team to confirm that they are expecting me (Mancini, 2007, p. 27). This will prevent me from wasting time waiting for the car to be repaired or doctor to finish up with his or her client. Furthermore, I will always keep time in meetings to ensure that meeting start and end as scheduled. I shall respond to members concerns within twenty four hours through the telephone, staff notice board or email. The above leadership skills must be developed and practiced accompanied bysupportive leadership traits especially integrity. Integrity is key leadership trait that promotes trust. It is being honest and keeping the promises made to the people that are being led. I will also develop values and beliefs that help to form strong sense of right and wrong (Killinger, 2007, p. 9: Michael and Lochrie, 2010, p. 95). In addition, good leaders are adaptive and flexible. Therefore, I will always be open to new ideas and accept different views about a given situation. I will be willing to change with changing conditions and situations. Good leaders perceive change as opportunities and learn to embrace it. Development of communication skills Communication is very important in making the oncology ward staff effective. I will always listen before I speak, speak slowly and clearly, use diagrams where possible to express my points and encourage questions (Ellis, 2009, p. 33). Burnard (1997, p. 83) asserts that listening shows that one cares. Furthermore, I will acknowledge differences of opinions, be open-minded, not be judgmental, accept feedback, be assertive, and share my feelings and thoughts with members of staff. Good communication ensures that interpersonal communication between leaders and followers is clear and understandable. Good communication ensures that all the team members are informed about how their actions, behavior and work affect the hospital, patients and the society (Ellis, 2005, p. 23). Good communication skills will ensure that the vision and mission of the oncology ward is well communicated to the staff. Proficiency is necessary for informing and seeking information. I will try as much as possible to communicate to all members regularly. When a problem arises, I will meet with affected parties to discuss and arrive at an acceptable solution within twenty four hours. I will establish direct contacts with all team members once every week to recognize their efforts and notice their concerns. In addition, I will always be explicit and clear on the expectations I have for all my team members. Effective persuasion is an important communication skill that I will alarm. It enables a leader to influence followers and other key persons in the hospital to follow a particular path or implement a certain idea. Persuasive skills help the leader to control the group and ensure that each person in a team is going in the same direction (Lakhani 2005, p. 146). Develop conflict management skills When problems and conflicts affect the oncology ward, I will try as much as possible to show courage, creativity and leadership. In addition, I will work diligently to identify worse possible outcome that may arise to enable me make appropriate decision. This will be possible if I will be calm, brave and positive. I will try as much as possible to avoid making instinctive emotional responses. I will always consult members of the team and non team members as I seek for a solution. I will also think of what steps to take and how the steps shall be monitored and controlled. Conflict does not necessarily create chaos and disasters in the work place if a leader knows how to contain it. I need to develop skills to manage conflict in the oncology ward. The first thing to know and understand is how the conflict occurs to be able to solve it. First, it is important to identify the source of conflict by listening to and observing signals of tensions. I shall be alert and suspicious of any conflict related signal. Threats, heartaches, increased stress levels or lack of concentration could be signals of simmering conflict. I will try to solve tensions at this early stage by mediating between the affected parties to discuss their bone of contention and develop plan on how the conflict could be resolved. Secondly, when conflicts emerge, I will clarify roles and responsibilities of the parties of parties involved in a conflict. This helps to clarify their responsibility in stopping it. Thirdly, I will try as much as possible to stop all injustices and bad reports that are real or imagine; past or present collected for the purpose of attack and defense. I will be assertive, confident and courageous to provide protection for all the parties. I should also be able to deal with resentments, abusive actions and words as well as suspicions through authority and maturity. I should be able to monitor and adjust tension and bring the devastating conflict to the crisis point. However, I will avoid enduring insults and abuses. Fourth, I will help the warring parties to adjust to peaceful resolutions. At this stage, all the warring parties must stop fighting (Palmer, 1991, p. 61-64). Once I understand the stages of conflicts, I will move ahead and develop concrete steps to stop them and minimize their impacts. To solve the conflicts, I will establish a structure and a philosophy conducive to early conflict management. This helps to discover and deal with conflict in its early stages. I will call for a staff meeting regularly to pray, discus and handle problems and issues as they emerge. I will always stimulate members to ventilate their concerns and feelings with respect and self mastery. I shall also promote free and open communication across the group. Each member should have a chance to indicate areas causing conflict and express their views and feelings about the problems. I shall also seek to clarify the goals, expectations and plans of the group. The roles and responsibilities of the members shall be adjusted regularly to meet the changing needs of the group members and oncology ward. References Beatty, AC & Scott, AB 2004, Building smart teams: roadmap to high performance, Sage, London. Bloom, G & Moir, E 2005, Blended coaching: skills and strategies to support principal development, Corwin Press, California. Brennen, MA n. d., Leadership Styles, viewed 15 December 2010, . Burnard, P 1997, Effective communication skills for health professionals, 2nd edn, Nelson Thornes, Cheltenham. Ellis, R 2009, Communication Skills: Stepladders to Success for the Professional, 2nd edn, Intellect Books, Bristol. Ellis, WC 2005, Management skills for new managers, Amacom Div American Mgmt Assn, New York. Hargie, O 2006, The handbook of communication skills, 3rd edn, Taylor & Francis, New York. Killinger, B 2007, Integrity: doing the right thing for the right reason, McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, Canada. Lakhani, D 2005, Persuasion: the art of getting what you want, John Wiley and Sons, New Jersey. Lehrer, MP, Woolfolk, RL & Sime, EW 2007, Principles and practice of stress management, 3rd edn, Guilford Press, New York. Mancini, M 2007, Time Management: 24 Techniques to Make Each Minute Count at Work, McGraw-Hill Professional, New York. Michael, B& Richard J. Lochrie, JR 2010, Integrity: The Core of Leadership Tate Publishing, Oklahoma. Palmer, C D 1991, Managing Conflict Creatively: A Guide for Missionaries and Christian Workers, William Carey Library, California. Peake, HT & Ball, DJ 1991, Psychotherapy training: contextual and developmental influences in settings, stages, and mind sets, Routledge, London. Pride, MW, Hughes, JR & Kapoo, RJ 2009, Business, 10 edn, Cengage Learning, New York. Seaward, LB 2006, Managing stress: principles and strategies for health and wellbeing, 5th edn, Jones & Bartlett Learning, Canada. Stahl, J 2007, Lessons on Leadership: The 7 Fundamental Management Skills for Leaders at All Levels, Kaplan Publishing, New York. Sydney Adventist Hospital Ltd n. d., Cancer, viewed 15 December 2010, Thomas, A 1995, Coaching for Staff Development, Wiley-Blackwell, Leicester. Turk, W 2008, Common Sense Project Management, ASQ Quality Press, Milwaukee. Vázquez Luis, R 2005, Management skills and leadership techniques, Ideaspropias Editorial S.L. Spain. Wallis, D & Wolff, C 1998, Stress and organisational problems in hospitals: implications for management, Routledge, London. West, L & Milan, M 2001, The reflecting glass: professional coaching for leadership development, Palgrave Macmillan, New York. Appendix I- Action plan Area for development Action Resources required By what date Success criteria Develop leadership skills Increased delegation of duties and responsibilities Communication moves in all directions Establish group identity Give staff opportunity to contribute their ideas and apply their skills Respect views of all staff Keep all the promises made to staff Money, communication equipments, people, time, ideas, information on leadership, December 31, 2012 Increased cooperation, oncology ward vision, missions, achievement of wards objectives, Increased employee commitment , Increased employee and patient motivation, Reduced waiting time, Clean ward, supportive staff, staff autonomy, increased patient response to treatment Develop communication skills Attend a communication skills class Keep communication open Encourage person to person communication Use of email and telephone Telephone, internet, communication skills facilitator, staff, money, time, notice board, April 28, 2011 Improved listening, communication moves in all directions, increased number of communication devices and infrastructure, increased communication costs, Increased feedback frequency, regular meetings Develop conflict management skills Enroll in a conflict management course Keep communication open Identify and categorize conflicts Consult all oncology staff members when conflict emerges. Mediate between conflicting parties Clarify roles and responsibilities of warring parties Monitor and control all conflicts and steps to stop them Counselors, conflict management information (books and journals), money, time, conflict resolution and ideas. December 31, 2011 Reduced conflicts, recognition of diverse culture, increased democracy, improved conflict resolution skills, friendlier atmosphere and happier staff. Clinical Area: Oncology department Appendix II- Table showing the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats Strengths Weaknesses Intelligent and confident Result and action oriented Ambitious Energetic and high mobility Fluent in speech Organized Alert Dependable Decisive Poor negotiating skills uncooperative rigid not persuasive Impatient Intolerant to stress Inexperience Opportunities Threats Hospital management is supportive Growth and learning opportunity Discipline and hardworking staff Adequate facilities Proximity to training institutions Doctors ego, Routine tiring tasks Limited finances High level of stress Violent patients and close person (friends and relatives) Appendix III- Type of cancers Leukemia Lung Cancer Gynaecological Cancers Testicular Cancer Melanoma Bladder Cancer Haematological Cancers Ovarian Cancer Sarcoma Thyroid Cancer Hodgkin's Disease Pancreatic Cancer Colorectal Cancer Breast Cancer Gall Bladder & Bile Duct Cancer Prostate Cancer Lymphoma Cervical Cancer Soft Tissue Sarcoma Kidney Cancer Skin Cancer Medical Oncology Gastric (Stomach) Cancer Surgical Oncology Source: Sydney Adventist Hospital Ltd Read More