International Journal Of Conflict Management: A Discussion

Description of the event

Discuss About The International Journal Of Conflict Management.

Conflict management can be defined as the practice within the organizational culture that helps in recognition and effective dealing with different forms of disputes. This is done in balanced as well as rational ways to ensure smooth workflow (Chan, sit & Lau, 2014). This assignment will thereby show one of the clinical experience where I faced conflicts and the ways I will adapt in the future so that such disputes can be easily resolved.

I was placed under the guidance of senior registered nurses who was supposed to guide me through the preliminary stages of caring of patients and my main work role was to help her and assist in her activities at the same time. From the very first day, I noticed that she was rude and her behaviors made me feel that she thought I was incompetent. She behaved very rudely with me when I missed one of the medications of the patient and did not give the medication as the right time. From that day onwards, she always talked to me impolitely and always humiliated me in front of other members. Although I tried to put my best effort and completed every of her task successfully, but she never acknowledged my work. This made me feel that she did not like me at all and this affected my morale and zeal of working in the ward for the patient. It was becoming very difficult for me as I was not getting her guidance and my fear of humiliating her also supported such of my behavior. In course of time, it changed into a conflict where both of us tried to avoid each other. This affected me, as I needed to fulfill my placement task successfully. I was also tensed as I could not understand how I could complete my placement if the senior nurse did not help me. This created anxiety in me and I was completely broken down.

Three types of results may rise from occurrence of any conflicts. One of them is the lose-lose situation where both the stakeholders engaged in the conflicts gets negative results as an outcome of the conflict (Pines et al., 2014). Then is the win-win outcome where both the stakeholders can successfully manage the conflicts and both of them derive potential positive outcomes from the conflicts. Another is the win-lose result of the conflict management (Cherry & Jacobs, 2016). The conflicts that took place between the junior and the senior nurse was affecting me to a large extent as I was not getting enough guidance from the senior and was losing the opportunity to gain experiences and learn new clinical skills in the workplace. However, as she was the senior nurses and she had no direct losses from these consequences, therefore she was on the winning side of the situation. Such a situation was affecting me as I was failing to utilize the opportunity of learning new things from the clinical placement and therefore was not able to learn new procedures and clinical skills that would affect my career and prevent me from growing and developing professionally. Therefore, I need to develop proper conflict management strategies that would help me to overcome the situation and come out victorious. One of the important approaches that I believe to be effective in conflict management is the four-step procedure. Out of the four steps, the first step is called the focusing on the issue. The main issue that I have realized is that the development of negative feelings about each other in the –senior nurse-junior nurse relationship had affected my opportunity of learning new skills, getting guidance from the mentor as the member was not effectively communicating with me. Moreover, she was assigning tasks to me for which I needed her guidance but could not ask for it, as I feared her reaction. Therefore, in a way, my novice skills and knowledge was also not appropriate for treating patients in a safe way as I might make mistakes, which can be threatening, to the patients. Therefore, the issue was barrier in development of knowledge and application of intervention that are not appropriate. These could have harmed the patient. Once the issues had been identified, the next step is the letting go of the past. It is extremely important for me to overcome ego and insecurity in such a situation for achieving the bigger goals that brings out positive impacts not only on my career but also for meeting the visions of the organization. Therefore, I should request my senior nurse to plan a meeting where we will sit together and state the different issues and differences that were taking place amongst us. In this step, the senior nurses would be stating about the issues that make her feel that the nurse is incompetent and the junior nurse needs to state the facts that make her feel she is bullied and not guided properly. This would help in enabling transparency in the relationship and would help to develop better bonding. The next step is called the exploration of the needs. This step would include both the stakeholders to identify the needs by which they can be able to overcome the conflicts (Leksell et al. 2015). The senior nurse would need provide effective feedback to the junior nurse by whom she can understand the different mistakes and thereby guide her properly to help her develop her skills and knowledge. The senior nurse should never assume facts about the new student nurses and try to help them in every way without humiliating their theoretical skills or lack of knowledge (Saeed et al., 2014). The junior nurse should also recognize the need to overcome her ego and thereby try to reveal all her feelings to the senior nurse and state how her behavior is affecting her mentally and emotionally. She should however speak these in a polite and friendly manner. These would help in the prevention of development of negative feelings (Jung & Kang, 2014). The next step is working collaboratively. Both the members would sit together, clear out the differences and plan their new ways of working so that such power struggles and negative emotions can never affect both of them to reach their goals (Huber, 2017).

Theoretical analysis

A conflict in the nursing profession not only affects the safety of the patients but also affects the morale of the professionals, as they seem to suffer from mental and emotional instability. Nurses tend to become anxious and suffer from insecurity regarding the tensed situations (Marziali et al., 2015). They tend to constantly think of such issues and blame games result that ultimately results in development of errors that threaten the patient’s lives. Smooth flow of communication also is disrupted that increases the chance of medication error and many others. Therefore, conflicts that may take place between two nursing professionals have the potential to threaten the life of the patients in many ways (Ahanchian et al., 2015). Moreover, errors occurring from such conflicts may also result the individuals to get involved in legal obligations as well as ethical breaches that might affect their career and resulting them in losing their license. Moreover, such conflicts may also result in development of emotional and mental issues that create burnouts and apathy to work in such an environment (Einarsen et al., 2016). The SNB codes of nurses and midwives state in its principle no. 9 that it is important for practicing self-regulation that is also very important for conflict resolution (SNB Code for nurses and midwives, 2016). Nurses need to be responsible and accountable for people, and the profession for maintaining competence and continued personal and professional growth and this can be only achieved when the working environments is free from conflicts and negative feelings. Principle 10 also sates the professionals to work collaboratively with all the members of the healthcare team. For these development of effective bonds and trust among the members are important and this can be only developing when the conflicts are resolved completely.

Conclusion:

From the above discussion, it becomes clear that conflicts may often arise among members that may have many implications. It not only affects the care of the patient but also threatens their life. Moreover, it also results in disrupting the ability of the nurses to provide best care as their mental and emotional stability gets affected. The organizational goals also get affected. Hence, with effective management techniques, it needs to be overcome and resolved so that smooth workflow can be ensured in the workplace.

References:

Ahanchian, M. R., Zeydi, A. E., & Armat, M. R. (2015). Conflict management styles among Iranian critical care nursing staff: a cross-sectional study. Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing, 34(3), 140-145.

Chan, J. C., Sit, E. N., & Lau, W. M. (2014). Conflict management styles, emotional intelligence and implicit theories of personality of nursing students: A cross-sectional study. Nurse education today, 34(6), 934-939.

Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Code for nurses and midwives 2016 by singapore nursing board  Retrieved from: https://www.healthprofessionals.gov.sg/content/dam/hprof/snb/docs/publications/Code%20for%20Nurses%20and%20Midwives%20April%202018.pdf

Einarsen, S., Skogstad, A., Rørvik, E., Lande, Å. B., & Nielsen, M. B. (2016). Climate for conflict management, exposure to workplace bullying and work engagement: a moderated mediation analysis. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 1-22.

Huber, D. (2017). Leadership and Nursing Care Management-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Jung, M., & Kang, H. (2014). Nursing students’ self esteem, assertiveness and interpersonal relationship according to their style of conflict management. Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education, 20(3), 345-352.

Leksell, J., Gardulf, A., Nilsson, J., & Lepp, M. (2015). Self-reported conflict management competence among nursing students on the point of graduating and registered nurses with professional experience. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 5(8), 82-89.

Marziali, E., Mackenzie, C. S., & Tchernikov, I. (2015). Acceptability of an e-learning program to help nursing assistants manage relationship conflict in nursing homes. American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Other Dementias®, 30(1), 55-60.

Pines, E. W., Rauschhuber, M. L., Cook, J. D., Norgan, G. H., Canchola, L., Richardson, C., & Jones, M. E. (2014). Enhancing resilience, empowerment, and conflict management among baccalaureate students: outcomes of a pilot study. Nurse Educator, 39(2), 85-90.

Saeed, T., Almas, S., Anis-ul-Haq, M., & Niazi, G. S. K. (2014). Leadership styles: relationship with conflict management styles. International Journal of Conflict Management, 25(3), 214-225.