NUR 605 Week 4 Discussion 1: Conflict in the Workplace

In my professional career, there have been many times where conflict has come up, sometimes between patients, sometimes between staff, and more often than not between a patient and a staff member. This is a tough concept when it comes to not only professionalism, but also resolving the conflict itself. Conflict is defined by Huber (2018) as a clash or struggle that occurs when a real or perceived threat or difference exists in the desires, thoughts, attitudes, feelings, or behaviors of two or more parties. They also state that it arises from opposing thoughts, actions or feelings, meaning that multiple views do not agree with each other. In the workplace this can cause a large amount of tension. In order to eliminate this, we must simply get rid of the conflict; this is called conflict resolution. There are multiple different types of conflict, one in particular is called process conflict. According to a YouTube video by OACETTLive (2015), in process conflict, we’ve agreed on what needs doing, but we can’t agree on how to do it. We know we need to do something, but we can’t agree that we need to do steps A, B, C, D and E in order to accomplish that task. That’s process conflict.
An example in my personal life where there was a conflict, was when I had a patient who was what we call a frequent flyer, he was in the hospital often. This man, we will call him Steve, was very argumentative. He was in the hospital often for ETOH and drug overdoses, but had underlying psych issues. When he would get admitted he would often be on a 72 hour hold due to suicidal ideation. Steve was pleasant most of the time but when he did not get his way, he was deceitful. Baseline, Steve was confused. On one incident, Steve was admitted with a drug overdose, and I went into his room to place an IV for fluids. Steve was pacing around the room asking when he could go home. I told him as soon as he gets better, we would discharge him. Often, he would not believe what we were telling him, but this day he was entirely out of it, and after the IV was placed he yelled “You’re all trying to kill me!” and ripped the IV out of his arm. I had to use a process here, called compromising.

I explained to him that I was just trying to help him feel better, and not intending to harm him in any way. Long story short; he was uncomfortable and confused, and I diffused the situation by making him feel as though he was safe and free from harm. In a study done by White et al. (2020), a conflict management education intervention was done where they introduced concepts on how to manage conflicts in the workplace. It was an hour long and found to have improved the participants’ knowledge and affected perceptions. In turn, some participants understood that mindfulness and awareness would improve professional interactions or reduce conflict. All in all, Steve and myself were fine, but I believe I would have been better able to handle the situation had my job provided some sort of education about conflict in the workplace. Conflict is inevitable, but depending on how you are trained, there is often an easy way to solve it.

Huber, D. L. (2018). Leadership and nursing care management (6th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Saunders/Elsevier Publishers, Inc.
OACETTLive. (November 9,2015). Understanding Conflict Resolution [Video]. YouTube.

White, B. A. A., White, H. D., Bledsoe, C., Hendricks, R., & Arroliga, A. C. (2020). Conflict Management Education in the Intensive Care Unit. American Journal of Critical Care, 29(6), e135–e138.

Week 4 Discussion 1: Conflict in the Workplace

Value: 100 points

Due: In an effort to facilitate scholarly discourse, create your initial post by Day 3 and reply to at least two of your classmates, on two separate days, by Day 7.

Grading Category: Discussions

Note: In this type of discussion, you will not see the responses of your classmates until after you have posted your own response to the question below.

Initial Post

In 450–500 words, address the following prompts. Be sure to maintain HIPAA confidentiality guidelines by not revealing personal details.

Share an incident in your professional nursing career in which conflict existed.
Objectively present the factors contributing to this conflict.
How did the response of the nursing leader influence the conflict?

Replies

Reply to at least two of your classmates. In your reply posts, in a well-developed paragraph (300–350 words to each peer), provide referenced support to share conflict resolution strategies that could have been effective in the situation your peer described.

Please refer to the for details on how this activity will be graded. The described expectations meet the passing level of 80%. Students are directed to review the Discussion Grading Rubric for criteria which exceed expectations.

Posting to the Discussion Forum

Select the appropriate Thread.
Select Reply.
Create your post.
Select Post to Forum.

This is a question and answer forum. In order to see other responses to these questions, you must first post your answer.

Any workplace hopes to achieve and accomplish common goals of the organization through the employees involved. The process in achieving the goals may take some time and include members with opposing values, which may create more opportunities for conflict

NUR 605 Week 4 Discussion 1 Conflict in the Workplace

to arise. According to Huber, conflict is defined as a struggle that occurs when a real or perceived threat or difference exists in the desires, thoughts, attitudes, feelings, or behaviors of two or more parties (Huber, 2018, p.162). There is tension involved in conflict, and the result could be either negative or positive depending on how the situation is handled. Conflict may be seen as a negative situation, as it produces argument and interference between parties (Huber, 2018, p.162). Although it does produce some disagreement, this can help an organization to grow through learned lessons and communication with others. The outcomes of the conflict are what really matters to the group. We learn from each other and achieve organizational goals when a healthy conflict brings us closer to delivering better patient care.

I have witnessed a conflict at work when a new nursing aide was just hired to our unit. Shortly after she began working with us, we noticed some increasing gaps in care. With an influx of new staff, we were also seeing more patient falls and lack of charting. One night I was working with her and a few other staff. The clinical leader happened to observe this aide leave a patient’s bed all the way up when leaving the room. That same night she also took vitals on patients and never communicated to the nursing staff if any results were out of normal range. She had also removed oxygen off a patient when ambulating and never put it back on the patient, who ended up desating into the 70s and required a rapid response alert.

The clinical leader pulled the nursing aide aside and addressed the errors in care. The aide was a little harsh in response and said she felt attacked because she is new. The clinical leader kept a calm demeanor and talked the aide through hospital protocol and addressed all gaps of care. At first the aide was reluctant and unwilling to listen, and didn’t like receiving the constructive criticism. But towards the end of her conversation with the nurse leader, she agreed to address these issues and started to focus on providing safer patient care. After the clinical leader talked to this aide, I decided to speak with her and acknowledge that she is trying really hard as it is a new and stressful job at times. I decided I would go over a mini report with her on the patients we had together and outlined the expectations on vital sign parameters and what tasks needed to be done. It is awkward at first to call someone out on doing something wrong, but the organization will never reach goals if issues are not addressed accordingly. After this conflict, all staff had noticed a great improvement in this aide’s work ethic and attention to detail. According to Northouse, communication plays a central role in conflict and its resolution (Northouse, 2018, p.264). If a situation is handled in an appropriate way, conflict can be constructive and used to positive ends (Northouse, 2018, p.263). The communication between the nurse leader and the aide has now led to better and more safe patient outcomes.

In an article by Kayser and Kaplan, conflict in the ICU is reviewed through data and literature studies (Kayser & Kaplan, 2020, p.1350). A lot of conflicts in the ICU are related to goals of care and complex decision-making situations. The article emphasizes how identifying, managing and preventing conflict is the first step in supporting clinical excellence (Kayser & Kaplan, 2020, p.1356). This step by step process reminds me of the clinical nurse leader and her discussion with the aide. She identified the issues, managed it through appropriate discussion, and prevented further conflict through supporting her as a new employee and allowing her to voice her concerns. Conflict involves communication between both parties involved, and will lead to better organizational outcomes as well as an improvement in work ethic when handled appropriately with a positive approach.

References:
Huber, D. (2018). Chapter 10. In Leadership and nursing care management (p.153-172). St Louis, MO: Elsevier.
Kayser, J., & Kaplan, L. J. (2020). Conflict Management in the ICU. Critical Care Medicine, 48(9), 1349-1357.
Northouse, P. G. (2018). Managing Conflict. In Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice (4th ed., pp. 239-264). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
Include in-text citations in your response
Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
Follow APA-7th edition
Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
Follow APA 7th edition
Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
Here are some helpful links
The is a great resource

Discussion Question Rubric

Note: Scholarly resources are defined as evidence-based practice, peer-reviewed journals; textbook (do not rely solely on your textbook as a reference); and National Standard Guidelines. Review assignment instructions, as this will provide any additional requirements that are not specifically listed on the rubric.

Note: The value of each of the criterion on this rubric represents a point range. (example: 17-0 points)

Discussion Question Rubric – 100 Points
Criteria	Exemplary Exceeds Expectations	Advanced Meets Expectations	Intermediate Needs Improvement	Novice Inadequate	Total Points
Quality of Initial Post	Provides clear examples supported by course content and references. Cites three or more references, using at least one new scholarly resource that was not provided in the course materials. All instruction requirements noted. 40 points	Components are accurate and thoroughly represented, with explanations and application of knowledge to include evidence-based practice, ethics, theory, and/or role. Synthesizes course content using course materials and scholarly resources to support importantpoints. Meets all requirements within the discussion instructions. Cites two references. 35 points	Components are accurate and mostly represented primarily with definitions and summarization. Ideas may be overstated, with minimal contribution to the subject matter. Minimal application to evidence-based practice, theory, or role development. Synthesis of course content is present but missing depth and/or development. Is missing one component/requirement of the discussion instructions. Cites one reference, or references do not clearly support content. Most instruction requirements are noted. 31 points	Absent application to evidence-based practice, theory, or role development. Synthesis of course content is superficial. Demonstrates incomplete understanding of content and/or inadequate preparation. No references cited. Missing several instruction requirements. Submits post late. 27 points	40
Peer Response Post	Offers both supportive and alternative viewpoints to the discussion, using two or more scholarly references per peer post. Post provides additional value to the conversation. All instruction requirements noted. 40 points	Evidence of further synthesis of course content. Provides clarification and new information or insight related to the content of the peer’s post. Response is supported by course content and a minimum of one scholarly reference per each peer post. All instruction requirements noted. 35 points	Lacks clarification or new information. Scholarly reference supports the content in the peer post without adding new information or insight. Missing reference from one peer post. Partially followed instructions regarding number of reply posts. Most instruction requirements are noted. 31 points	Post is primarily a summation of peer’s post without further synthesis of course content. Demonstrates incomplete understanding of content and/or inadequate preparation. Did not follow instructions regarding number of reply posts. Missing reference from peer posts. Missing several instruction requirements. Submits post late. 27 points	40
Frequency of Distribution	Initial post and peer post(s) made on multiple separate days. All instruction requirements noted. 10 points	Initial post and peer post(s) made on multiple separate days. 8 points	Minimum of two post options (initial and/or peer) made on separate days. 7 points	All posts made on same day. Submission demonstrates inadequate preparation. No post submitted. 6 points	10
Organization	Well-organized content with a clear and complex purpose statement and content argument. Writing is concise with a logical flow of ideas. 5 points	Organized content with an informative purpose statement, supportive content, and summary statement. Argument content is developed with minimal issues in content flow. 4 points	Poor organization and flow of ideas distract from content. Narrative is difficult to follow and frequently causes reader to reread work. Purpose statement is noted. 3 points	Illogical flow of ideas. Prose rambles. Purpose statement is unclear or missing. Demonstrates incomplete understanding of content and/or inadequate preparation. No purpose statement. Submits assignment late. 2 points	5
APA, Grammar, and Spelling	Correct APA formatting with no errors. The writer correctly identifies reading audience, as demonstrated by appropriate language (avoids jargon and simplifies complex concepts appropriately). Writing is concise, in active voice, and avoids awkward transitions and overuse of conjunctions. There are no spelling, punctuation, or word-usage errors. 5 points	Correct and consistent APA formatting of references and cites all references used. No more than two unique APA errors. The writer demonstrates correct usage of formal English language in sentence construction. Variation in sentence structure and word usage promotes readability. There are minimal to no grammar, punctuation, or word-usage errors. 4 points	Three to four unique APA formatting errors. The writer occasionally uses awkward sentence construction or overuses/inappropriately uses complex sentence structure. Problems with word usage (evidence of incorrect use of thesaurus) and punctuation persist, often causing some difficulties with grammar. Some words, transitional phrases, and conjunctions are overused. Multiple grammar, punctuation, or word usage errors. 3 points	Five or more unique formatting errors or no attempt to format in APA. The writer demonstrates limited understanding of formal written language use; writing is colloquial (conforms to spoken language). The writer struggles with limited vocabulary and has difficulty conveying meaning such that only the broadest, most general messages are presented. Grammar and punctuation are consistently incorrect. Spelling errors are numerous. Submits assignment late. 2 points	5
Total Points					100