Conflict is an expected outcome when two or more people have differences in values, ideas or feelings/beliefs (Marquis & Huston, 2017).

Witnessed/engaged conflict issue

A conflict I recently had happened when I was in charge, it was a weekend, and we had a nurse who was recently off orientation a few days. She was not a “new” nurse, but she was new to our hospital and the patient population. It was down to the last four hours of our shift and I needed to send someone to float to a different unit, it was her turn. She refused to go, she was under the impression that she was still being “ramped” and not allowed to float, I had no documentation in our charge book about this, and it was never reported to me this was the case. Also, this nurse mind is only a few classes away from being a nurse practitioner, and she teacher clinical to nursing students. There wasn’t an issue in my mind. However, I didn’t have proof that she wasn’t right. I called the house supervisor and got her opinion, we had recently gotten a new nurse manager, so I sent a text to the one who had hired her, and she claimed she didn’t know. I then found the number to the new manager and called her for clarification. She confirmed my suspicion, that in fact, the nurse was able to float, by this time, I had chosen a different nurse, and they were understanding and willing to float. This situation could have been handled more effectively by better communication and documentation somewhere handy for the charge nurse.

Conflict management style

Some conflict management styles work differently for each situation. Some of the strategies you can use are: forcing, accommodating, avoiding, compromising, collaborating (Williams, n.d.). Some work better than others, depending on the conflict, therefore the manager should address all stages of the conflict, there are five: Latent, perceived, felt, manifest and aftermath (Marquis & Huston, 2017, p. 556).

My conflict was an unavoidable one, I think otherwise we went through each strategy listed above, which ended as a result of collaboration, accommodation, and compromise.

Typical approach

A healthy work environment requires conflict resolution, this is achieved through communication and understanding of the situation (Johansen, 2012). I personally do not like conflict and try to avoid it as much as possible, however, this is not always easy, therefore I try to use compromise as much as I can.