Explain how to manage conflict.
Interprofessional Conflict Working in high-stress jobs, nurses often have conflicts with other health care professionals, ad- ministrators, or coworkers. A common example is conflict in the interprofessional team is feel- ing like each other’s time isn’t respected. To do multidisciplinary rounds, the doctor might want to meet at 1 p.m., the nurse at 1:30 p.m., the social worker at 10 a.m., etc. A time that works with the work flow of each job is important so that conflict doesn’t arise over a person feeling that he or she isn’t valued or respected.
Conflicts between physicians and nurses, however, dominate problems reported by both professions (Leever et al., 2010). For example, the physician may want to send the patient home today, while the nurse knows the patient is struggling to understand ordered medications. In addition, the physical therapist tells the nurse that the patient needs another day of practicing exercises before she can be safely discharged.
The nurse manager can teach staff how to handle interprofessional conversations to advo- cate for the patient, explaining the following:
● Use facts to support your point ● Speak from the vantage point of the patient ● Explain what will best help the patient ● Do not inject what you personally want
Interprofessional conflict is expected to escalate as the most effective and least expen- sive care is promoted (Webb, 2010). For example, nurse practitioners (NPs) already handle a considerable amount of routine care (e.g., minor injuries, sinusitis, sports exams) because of accessibility (often in retail clinics) and because of cost. Physicians and NPs may have
162 PART 2 • LEARNING KEY SKILLS IN NURSING MANAGEMENT
conflicts over which profession should provide and—more importantly, be reimbursed— for this care.
How nurses handle conflict has been studied. The relationship between the nurse’s person- ality type and how the person handles conflict was reported by Whitworth (2008). Using the Thomas Kilmann Mode Instrument (Thomas & Kilmann, 1974) the researcher found no statisti- cal correlation between the two constructs. Whitworth suggested, however, that the environment may have more influence than personality factors.
Using the same instrument, Morrison (2008) examined nurses’ emotional intelligence com- petencies and how nurses handle conflict. Emotional intelligence (Goleman, 2006) measures self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. In the nurses studied, higher emotional intelligence scores in all four measures correlated with collaborating, but negatively with accommodating.