[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?

[Melanie]

I was once involved in a conflict at work in the past. The program that I was doing Case Management for was closing due to a global drug shortage. The Manufacturer was not able to provide a timeframe for how long the shortage would last so the decision was made to close the program and refer our patients to another program with the same product but made by a different manufacturer.

I was advised by my Manager that I would have to go to another program she oversees. This approach didn’t make me happy as I was not given a choice, there was no discussion, I was simply just told. I had some experience with this program as I was responsible for covering if the Case Manager for that program was absent or away on vacation. Every time I covered it was a negative experience. Physicians were complaining about the lack of communication from that Case Manager, lack of patient updates being received, calls from their office not being returned etc. I got yelled at by a couple of the patients who had left multiple voice mails for this Case Manager who never returned them. The worst part was he was so disorganized and had no concept of time management which was plain to see as he was several weeks behind on completing tasks. Needless to say I was infuriated every time I had to cover as I knew what was waiting for me.

I think the Negotiating technique or Collaborating technique would have helped this situation as I should have been given the opportunity to voice my opinions and concerns and we should have discussed this new dynamic as a team and come up with ideas to collaborate and discuss time management issues and the importance of always communicating in a timely manner with HCP’s and pts etc. None of this happened, I was simply forced to comply. Sadly, the conflict was never resolved. Things didn’t change, I got my work done but the other Case Manager just kept doing the same thing. I decided to look for another job as I was not able to keep working alongside someone who frustrated me daily and a Manager who didn’t think my concerns deserved some attention and validation.

[Sandra]

Good for you for finding a new job but I do find as nurses we never get listened to about how to do jobs I feel like Drs and management don’t want to listen to our feed back and how things can go better in the work environment it’s like we don’t understand anything.

[Sandra]

I had a conflict one day at work with 2 psws. At the time I had a student finishing her program and they wanted the student to do the all of the washes for her assignment. I had said that she has the full assignment of 5 patients doing all assessments, medications, dressings etc., I had said she’s not washing them all either she knows how to wash patients. The psws ended up getting mad at me they sat around and didn’t end up washing the patients. The unfortunate think was it was a weekend so there was no management around. In the end my student and I ended up washing the patients because they refused too, I ended up telling them not to touch any of the patients I had again. It ended getting to reported to one of the charges and nothing ever got resolved from it. I would say that we should have compromised with each other on what patients we could have washed and what patients they could have washed instead of being mad at each other. We ended up not talking to each other for a long time but now we still work together on another unit and have resolved our issues.

[Heather]

I recently had a conflict with a pew who was not doing her job at all. I had received a complaint from a family member that this psw just put a drink beside the patient and did nothing else that she was supposed to do. I spoke to her and she just kept denying it and I finally was able to get her to listen to what the issue was but I had to do it by using a confronting style of communication which was uncomfortable which is to be expected. I have not had any more issues with this worker but at the time the only way was to confront.

[Melanie]

Having to confront a peer is never easy, but it may be necessary in order to have someone listen to understand the issues. The patients should never have to worry about not being taken care of. If a complaint is lodged, it must be investigated. You did what was required and it looks like it worked.

[Andrea]

A few years ago I moved from visiting nurse to clinic nurse within the same company as our clinic had just expanded and they needed nurses to fill the gaps until more staff could be hired and trained.
I was paired up to work along with another nurse who, while very good at her job, tends to over compensate by doing extra tasks, not required, in our daily routine. Things like developing her own tools and schedules for tasks which she feels work better for her than the company ones already in place.
While I am all for positive changes in the work place, I was already feeling overwhelmed with the new position I was in, the new changes to the clinic space and policies being put into place and a schedule of longer days, 12 hrs shifts instead of 7-8 hrs per day.
The nurse I was working with insisted we should both stay and work on these extra projects of hers after hours. I am a “helper” and was experiencing some intrapersonal conflict about whether I should help her or not. The resolution I chose was avoidance with myself, by trying to put it out of my mind. Of course this did not resolve anything. Eventually there was a blow up between us, although a civilized one. We still work together but my role has moved back out to a visiting role so i am no longer in the clinic everyday.
I probably could have used the confronting technique to set boundaries right at the beginning of this situation by telling my workmate I was not willing to stay after hours to do extra tasks when I was still learning the position.

[Maame]

I recall a time I had an conflict with a fellow nurse, in this particular conflict the nurse felt like evening shift is very busy and I should process all new orders since I work night shift. I simply told her that there is three shifts and our job is a 24 hour job and we should work together and not leave all the work for one shift. The resolution techinque I felt like would of helped my situation would be collborating. By collborating, both sides can come together to figure out a way to distribute the work evenly. The conflict was resolved by our unit manager having a conversation with both of us explaining we both have to share the work evenly.

[Author]

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