Interpersonal Conflict As A Stressful Conflicts In The Workplace

Whether you work for a manufacturing facility or the health care system, conflict is unavoidable. As a manager, you must learn to deal with conflict in the workplace. In this paper I will describe the different styles of conflict management. I will also discuss my preferred conflict management style with examples of its use. Lastly, I will describe a situation at work and how a conflict management strategy could have improved that situation.

Conflict is a fundamental part of life. In healthcare systems, where it is imperative to work in interdisciplinary teams in order to deliver quality patient care, it is inherent there will be conflict. Different members of an interdisciplinary team will bring various sets of morals, ideals and opinions, which ultimately will result in the overall team having a hard time working together. A lack of proper leadership, stress among team members and interpersonal relationships all contribute to issues within integrative healthcare teams. When not effectively resolved, conflict within healthcare teams has been linked to adverse consequences: issues among team members affect the quality of care delivered to patients. Positive conflict management is essential to building a cohesive care environment in which patients can thrive.

Conflict is a process that every one of us has experienced throughout our lives. There are various definitions of conflict as described by different authors. Generally, conflict is a process whereby, one individual’s interest is opposed or negatively affected by the other party (Yoder-Wise,2015).

Wherever there are people the ability for conflict exits. Conflict is a disagreement, opposition or clash. It can affect the person emotionally, physically and specially. It can result in a fight, discord and division. Conflict can be used to motivate; however it can be destructive and should be dealt with. According to McElhaney (n.d) nurses experience six major areas of conflict. This scenario depicts one of those areas.

Conflict usually occurs when individuals within a group or organization has differences in opinions. When individuals are in a disagreement about something like policies and procedures or even the overall direction of which an organization or company is heading it can become very frustrating. As we all know conflict the process of conflict usually begins when an individual or party has perceived the other part and it has showed a negative impact or will affect something that another party cares about.

Intrapersonal conflict is conflict that occurs within an individual (Yoder-Wise, 2015, p. 433)‌. When nursing professionals are continually engaging team building into practice, this type of conflict can be resolved more quickly and strengthen the culture within. Another type of conflict is organizational conflict. This type of conflict occurs in healthcare when nursing professionals disagree with institutional policies and procedures (p. 433).

One significant problem that must be addressed and resolved quickly is both the conflict and attitude of the doctor. It is well known that physicians’ has had complexes about themselves and have been put on a pedestal when it comes to hierarchy. They have always been hard to communicate to that they never appreciated nurses questioning their decisions. Today thankfully this is changing. MD’s are realizing that the nurses are the forefront of patient care and that they see things before they

According to Tabak and Koprak (2007) a major source of stress among nurses is related to conflict between nurses and physicians leading to not only a substantially higher level of stress, but also to job dissatisfaction. Given these implications it is imperative to resolve conflict within the workplace. In the case of Jane’s situation with Dr. Smith, a staff meeting should be held to “addresses [the] particular challenging issue...for which signs of conflict already exist” (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2013, p.125). Not addressing the conflict that is already noted will give the impression that the staffs concerns are being undermined and ignored. It is important to recognize and address any issues at hand early (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2013)

Effective nurse-physician collaboration is essential to superior patient care. The lack of effective collaboration has been cited as the root cause of over 70% of major medical errors (The Joint Commission, 2014). Effective communication between healthcare workers increases the patient’s quality of care. When nurses aren’t communicating effectively, medication errors, patient injury and possible death may occur. Ineffective communication between health care workers occurs when healthcare workers aren’t working together as a team. It’s important for healthcare providers to trust, and respect each other to work together, so effective patient care can be achieved. If healthcare workers aren’t on the same page, medical errors may occur. In some cases, nurses feel intimidated by doctors, or don’t want to let a physician know they don’t agree with an order.as a nurse you must always remember your job is to advocate for the patient, keep them safe care. If you must challenge a doctor’s order do so in a professional manner.

Nurses are required to interact with multiple individuals on a daily basis. These individuals include the patient, patient’s family members, and other healthcare team members. As the nurse works with these groups of individuals, he or she may experience an interpersonal conflict with any of them. However, it is more likely for the nurse to experience conflicts with other healthcare workers. When the nurse experiences an interpersonal conflict with other members of the healthcare team, tension rises in the workplace, causing stress to all other workers even if they are not directly involved in the conflict. According to Higginbottom, “Employees suffering from high stress levels have lower engagement, are less productive and have higher absenteeism levels than those not working under excessive pressure” (2014, para. 1). In other words, interpersonal conflict at workplace can lower the productivity of the whole healthcare team. I have been licensed as a registered nurse since July of 2013; therefore, my experience regarding interpersonal conflict at workplace is limited. However, I remember one incidence clearly. During my second year of working as a registered nurse, I have experienced an interpersonal conflict with one of the staff at the clinic I worked in, which resulted in dismissal of that staff from the clinic.

Managing conflict in the workplace is necessary for having excellent care in the healthcare field. Conflicts will always exist in the world and also in the health care world. In the health care field conflict may exist between physicians and other physicians, Physicians and nurses, nurses and other nurses, physicians and other staff members, and between the staff or the health care team and the patient or patient's family. According to the article by Ramsey “The conflicts may range from disagreements to major controversies that may lead to litigation or violence. Conflicts have an adverse effect on productivity, morale, and patient care.

Conflict is a disagreement or friction that arises between or within groups. Conflicts arise when the beliefs or actions of the members of a certain group are resisted or unacceptable to one or more members of another group. There are many psychological processes that cause changes in ones behavior and eventually leads to conflict. The three psychological processes I will be using to explain a conflict are the just world phenomenon, deindividuation, and stereotyping.

An effective conflict management approach is the key to the realization of improved quality of healthcare service, patient safety and satisfaction, holistic staff morale boost. Most important of all is the line of communication between all the moving parts in the medical team. A break in the communication line can spell danger in lives of the very patients that they are being entrusted with. The case of Dr. Michael Henry surrounding the conflict between physicians and staff at the Adams Memorial Hospital is one well outlined and a classic case example. Here the hospital’s Board of Trustees (BOT) need to decide whether to revoke Dr. Henry’s medical staff membership and clinical privileges or not considering evidentiary information presented

After further review of the case study, conflict management among team members needs to be addressed. Resolving conflict can often be like a constant balancing act among the opposing needs and interests; conflict can be unpleasant and stressful (Haraway & Haraway III, 2005). Conflict manage is essential for the success of healthcare organizations. Learning, as an organization, to constructively manage and succeed in conflict situations is a foundational construct of leadership and management (Ledlow, 2009). There are six different conflict styles: (1) accommodating, (2) avoiding, (3) collaborating, (4) competing, (5) compromising and (6) problem solving. After reading the case study, the surgical team is displaying conflict style of avoiding “potential disruption outweighs the benefits of resolution, gathering information supersedes immediate decision making, others can resolve the conflict more effectively and issues seem a result of other issues,” (Ledlow, 2009). Instead of going to the Physician Assistant, Nurse B should feel comfortable speaking to the surgeon with her questions and concerns.

Conflict in the workplace causes a decrease in the quality of care. Conflict creates chaos and a higher risk of poor patient care. Additionally low moral equals poor quality of care. As Sullivan stated, disruptive conflict does not follow any set of rules, and parties involved engages in activities to beat their opponent which causes angry, fear, and stress (2012).