[Sharon]

Think of a conflict you were involved in at work. Provide a brief overview of your conflict. What resolution technique would have helped in your situation? Did the conflict ever get resolved and if so, how?

[Alhasan]

In my role as a case manager, I was involved in a conflict with a hospital regarding the discharge plan of an individual who had been hospitalized for an extended period. The hospital aimed to discharge the patient back to their group home setting as soon as possible to free up the bed. However, the group home staff were not yet equipped with the necessary supports and training to adequately care for the individual upon their return.

Ideally, a collaborative resolution technique would have been most effective in this situation. Collaboration would have allowed both the hospital and our agency to work together to ensure that the patient received the necessary care without compromising the hospital’s need for bed availability. This approach would have involved open communication, joint problem-solving, and a mutual agreement on the timeline and steps required to facilitate a safe discharge.

Unfortunately, the urgency of the situation forced us to adopt a competing approach. Our agency had to strongly advocate for the patient’s needs, emphasizing the importance of keeping them in the hospital until all necessary supports and training were in place at the group home. This involved frequent meetings, clear articulation of our concerns, and assertive negotiation to ensure the patient’s safety and well-being.

Ultimately, the conflict was resolved through persistent advocacy and negotiation. The hospital agreed to delay the discharge until the group home staff were adequately prepared, ensuring that the patient could transition safely. While the competing approach was not ideal, it was necessary in this case to prioritize the patient’s immediate needs and ensure their continued care and safety.

[Carmen]

It’s great that you put the patient’s well-being first in such a tough situation. Your persistent advocacy and clear communication really made a difference for a safe discharge plan. Looking back at the situation, I can see how a collaborative approach would’ve been beneficial to encompass what’s best for all parties of the situation.

[Carmen]

In a work conflict, I had to collaborate with another nurse on writing a report about our primary patient. The conflict arose because she wasn’t contributing. After discussing, we discovered she didn’t understand the software and the full details required for the report. We resolved it by working together to complete the report. Using open communication and collaboration to resolve the conflict.

[Claire]

Hi Carmen,

I enjoyed how you spoke of this situation with your co worker and how it had the clear personal ability source of influence within the narrative! Wonderful to see an element from another module surface in another topic.

Your ability to resolution the conflict was wonderfully collaborative because it encompassed all important goals to each side. I also enjoyed how you highlighted open communication as a key to your resolution as this is the foundation of building trust, which is also a cornerstone of conflict resolution.

Thanks for your post 🙂

[Janet]

Collaborating with colleagues is sometimes challenging for sure, however I believe your assistance in finding out the root of the problem was helpful and resulted in the task being completed with both of your efforts and a learning experience for the staff who didn’t understand.

[Melissa]

One conflict I was recently involved in at work was with a residents family member involving a residents care. This conflict involved the whole care team including our doctors/Np’s and managers. This residents family member was not satisfied with the plan of care our healthcare team had come up with for her dad resulting in her becoming irate and verbally abusive to us yet she did not want him transferred to hospital despite us completing all tests and observations we could do in home. I believe the “confronting” technique may have been helpful in this situation as this conflict went on for 5+Days with us unable to satisfy this family member. I think if management had of stepped forward confronting this conflict immediately and supported their frontline staff it would have shown this family member that this behaviour/conflict is not tolerated in the home. The concerns could have been addressed immediately and a solution or explanation could have been provided immediately between both sides instead of this being drawn out over multiple days. This conflict is unfortunately still ongoing and has not yet been fully resolved.

[Rebecca]

Hi Melissa,
Thank you for sharing this example with us. This sounds so similar to many situations I encounter on the daily. I strongly agree with having supports in place and “taking the heat” as they say and or confronting the situation. Although many times situations may not directly relate to what we personal have done, being able to take the situation and deescalate and show some direction of the situation is being managed can really help. I find this really supports the direction of how the clients/family are going to engage, especially when upper management makes the call. The situation may not be resolved but being present and not avoiding the situation can really support the rest of the team.

[Claire]

I can think of a situation that is current at this moment which is requiring resolution that would fit for this discussion post.

Part of the culture of our Hospice has been to provide a legacy fingerprint to our families after their loved one has died. It is a copy of their fingerprint on a card with text and placed into a frame. This has been a staple of our “Honouring Ceremony”. The print is taken after death and provided to the family when our resident is leaving our care and before transferring them into the care of the Funeral Home.

I feel this is appropriate for this discussion post even though it is not presently a conflict. It has all the making of one and is in its infancy of a true conflict. It has elements of an organization ideological conflict that is based on concepts and ideas on an institutional level as well as flavours of interpersonal conflict because of differing views of staff on the subject.

With some mining I have discovered that there are many differing views of this practices appropriateness in its current form. We presently do not ask for permission prior to taking the print. Some staff believe strongly in the sacredness of this tradition and others, such as myself, feel that it would be more appropriate to obtain consent first. Some families respond with sincere appreciation when the fingerprint legacy is presented and at times other families appear to be “quiet” and polite. I personally feel we don’t have a true sense of whether it is sincerely welcomed generally and believe many may not feel comfortable being honest about their feeling regarding the print at this vulnerable time in their lives. I have always felt that it would be culturally safer and more person-centred to inform them of the choice of this and obtain consent first.

I think we had been using an “avoiding” style of resolution for many years. Now with a completely new management team I have been doing some “mining” to bring the topic to discussion. There appears to be three distinct groups forming. There is an “obtain consent first” team a ” complete automatically as traditionally done” team and an “abolish completely” team. I now feel I am in a position to bring it to our DOC to see if we can have it as a topic to explore at our next staff meeting. I think a “collaborative” approach where all aspects can be explored to reach the goals of each side over a length of time is the right approach. I believe we as a team all have a commitment to honour and respect our residents in life and in death and feel this approach would capture our intentions best.

[Melissa]

Hi Claire,
I enjoyed reading your perspective of a conflict that you are currently experiencing and bringing up in your workplace for discussion. I can definitely see how this practice of obtaining and presenting a finger print card off a loved one to a grieving family could be potentially harmful. I agree with you that the practice and policy on this should be changed to obtaining a families consent as one may not view this practice the same as another especially with different religions,ethnic groups etc. In the long term care home I work in when a resident passes each family has different requests and preferences for their loved one.I liked how you explained different techniques from this weeks reading regarding how you went about collecting and receiving information to solve this conflict.

[Rebecca]

A recent example of a conflict at work was staff had reached out requesting to not be sent to a client’s home as the household has a strong odor which will not go away, and staff is allergic. Before removing a staff from a client, I review the risks and that expectations are met. In a similar situation I would think to use the resolution technique: compromise and request client please follow policies so staff can enter but this specific situation it is more difficult as the clients are such heavy smokers the smell of smoke will not be resolved even if clients ceasing to smoke for one hour prior to the visit time. Unfortunately, the staff is more at risk with and although the clients are abiding by the rules the odor is something that will not go away. To resolve the conflict of putting staff at risk and client at potential risk for improper care, I had chosen to make an accommodation for the staff and having them removed from the client. Staff’s file has been flagged to avoid future conflict.

[Janet]

When a new general manager joined the retirement home where I worked, she disagreed with how I managed a series of falls during a shift. We had two incidents, and I had followed all the necessary protocols, including sending the resident to the hospital and notifying the appropriate staff. However, the charge nurse had not informed the family a delay in EMS arrival, and management.

I anticipated being questioned by the management team about the situation. Instead, the new manager placed equal blame on me, despite my position as a PSW who was also studying nursing. She threatened to have my license revoked and reprimanded me similarly to the charge nurse, criticizing me for not escalating the issue to management.

The breakdown could have been avoided if I hadn’t felt attacked and if the situation had been managed with a more constructive, leadership-oriented approach rather than a punitive, authoritative style.

Ultimately, the unresolved conflict between us created a toxic work environment, and I decided to leave. I was unable to effectively communicate my concerns, which led to resentment and an unhealthy relationship with the general manager.

[Sherri]

Firstly, I will admit that conflict resolution was not a thought process of mine, but after reading this lesson it made a lot of common sense. I too, had involvement with a resident’s family member. All of the nursing team gathered, the Doctor, Administrator, D.O.C etc. A young resident had a G-Tube. His swallowing was assessed, and given the extent of brain injury, was not possible for it to return. The father whom ,performs a praying ritual everyday for his son, began giving the resident strawberries to suckle on. As you can imagine the amount of stress and worry imposed upon the nursing staff; something had to be done. We had tried different resolution techniques as the family member would not have any of it. The last resort would have been legal counsel. Finally, in collaboration both sides worked out a
plan, in the best interest of this resident. To my knowledge, it has not happened since.

[Sherri]

Alhasan.
I can relate to your post. I’ve encountered a similar situation of a “bed being free”. The client was somehow overlooked after having been on a waitlist for X years. You are a spirited advocate. Congrats!

[Ruth]

Working as a nurse, I was involved in a conflict with a UCP who worked under my supervision. The conflict arose when this person started to spend more time on her phone and at the manager’s office during her working hours. Other colleagues started to complain as her performances created added stress and workload for them. Then, I approached her in a calm and professional manner to discuss the issue and express how her actions were impacting the team. However, she became defensive and denied any wrongdoing, which led to tension between us. I then brought the issue to our manager. As I started to explain the matter to the manager, she just ignored me and began talking to the UCP in their native language because they were of the same nationality. As a nurse, I was expecting to maintain open communication and mutual respect. But, I could see the UCP was being given favorable treatment; this made me question the fairness and transparency in the decision-making process. Then I decided to quit working with this kind of management and move forward.

[Kristina]

A conflict I was most recently involved in at my work regarded a resident & her daughter. The resident is currently receiving End Of Life care, but still drinks thickened fluids if she allows. The daughter (she is POA), believes that the resident (her mom) should be receiving a suppository every day. The daughter believes that her mom should receive a suppository daily due to her mom still being at 20% for her PPS, and consumes some fluids by mouth. Multiple nursing staff have provided health teaching & education to the POA, however she was conscientiously persistent on her mom receiving a suppository daily. After multiple talks with her, we concluded with the doctor, that a suppository would be given every other day to her mom. In this situation, I would conclude this to “accommodating” conflict resolution.

[Author]

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