Nursing Conflict Management - Essay Example

"Nursing Conflict Management" is a delightful example of a paper on care.
The article selected talks about the prevention and management of conflict in nursing in the nursing profession. The author defines and identifies what comprises a nurse’s relationships, which include client, colleagues, and workplace environs and further, defines conflict as a power tussle in which an individual may harass, injure, or neutralization of conspiracy to eliminate a rival. The article focuses on three main conflicts: Nurse-colleague conflict, nurse-client conflict, and workplace conflict. In addressing these conflicts, the author employs a three-dimensional approach that tackles the causes of conflict, how to manage and prevention of conflicts within the nursing profession.

Nurse-client is the first conflict addressed. It always expected that the relationship between the nurse and patient should be cordial and based on professionalism. The role of the nurse is to provide medication to the patient whereas it is the responsibility of the client to cooperate for successful service delivery. However, there are instances where conflict may crop up and impend the accomplishment of goals. How does this kind of conflict arise? Either of the parties can cause a conflict. For instance, a conflict can arise if a customer is acting assertively or violently, e.g. when he is using abusive language or has difficulty in conversing. On the other hand, a nurse can cause conflict if he or she labels or judges a client, e.g. uses an intimidating tone or does not appreciate the client’s values. These are few examples illustrate what can cause conflict (5).

Secondly is a colleague-nurse-based conflict that may result in a health care center and can badly jeopardize the delivery of health care. Therefore, many of the conflicts arise from misuse of power among workmates-some wanting their power to be felt whereas others work against their seniors with contempt and even sabotage. One of the major causes of such conflict is the power struggle among colleagues. Other factors include barriers against collegial teamwork and marginalization; generational gap; culture and education, etc. (6). The third conflict is that of the workplace, between employers and employees [nurse]. It is an accepted code that the two should uphold a relationship that is favorable for optimal health care delivery. However, sometimes conflicts may arise if the conditions under which the nurses are working are unfavorable. For instance, a conflict can arise either when management shows favoritism to the certain staff at the expense of others (7) or when there is a lack of clarity of the roles of each employee thus causing confusion among the workers.

How then can these conflicts be managed and avoided? To manage nurse-client conflict, various strategies that are tailor-made for each client’s specific argument need to be invoked. Nurses, therefore, ought to make appropriate judgments in deciding the best approach for each client. One such approach is to involve the patient, the patient’s family, and the health care team in dealing with hostility to reach a solution. As with managing collegial conflicts, nurses must establish a positive relationship using proper communication channels, mutual appreciation, and settling disputes persuasively rather than compulsion. Another way to avoid conflicts is by recognizing that individual stress can result in deteriorating personal relationships and, therefore, necessitating the need for making progressive efforts to manage such stress.

Finally, is how to manage and avoid workforce-related conflicts. The workplace environment requires cooperation among the several departments of a healthcare institution. Thus, to arrive at an amicable solution, the employer, the nurses, and other subordinate staff must combine efforts in reaching an agreement. As with employers, they ought to make the working environment favorable for nurses to operate efficiently. Therefore, employers must encourage a culture of reporting incidences of disagreement in the workplace to protect nurses from retaliation by dealing with the reports without bias.