Conflict refers to a process in which individuals, organizations or groups of people differ in values, goals, and ways of dealing, resulting in a state of antagonism or contradiction in behavior and mentality. Interpersonal conflict is an unavoidable phenomenon in people’s life and work, it also exists in health care organizations. Nurses are the core characters in various medical conflict situations (Finkelman, 2016, p323). Nurses need to face various kinds of problems every day; and complex interpersonal relationships, conflicts are inevitable. Some studies have shown that improper conflict management can lead to higher turnover rate, lower job satisfaction, and psychological problems such as anxiety (Simpao, 2013). Different conflict management patterns lead to different results, reasonable can enhance group performance, otherwise reduce group performance.
When I graduated, I worked in a local rehabilitation center. At that time, I did not have good clinical nursing experience, I was lacking good communication skills, flexibility, and awareness of the medical environment. At that time, I was assigned to shadow a nurse who had worked for more than 20 years. At that time, I was relieved that I could learn from a senior nurse. But the reality is the opposite, what I was doing is not the work of nurses. Many times, I did errands for her, like buy groceries, food and drink. I was assigned to finish CNA’s work. More often, I was harshly criticized by her, caught up with a slight mistake, and sometimes she even complained to my supervisor. What impressed me most was that she gave me the hardest patient every time, not the other nurses. And she never gave me any instructions or help. Many times, I felt like a drowning person. I was calling for help, but nobody paid attention to it. When I didn’t finish my assignment within the time limit, she openly criticized me, saying I wasn’t qualified to be a nurse. I didn’t mind taking care of the ill patients, but I needed some guidance and education. I just graduated from school, and I didn’t have enough ability and skills to take care of the patients properly. It’s been going on for six months and I wanted to give up a lot, but I needed a job and a chance. Until my supervisor mediated and I was transferred to a different department, my relationship with the senior nurse did not improve, and the conflict was still there. My supervisor said: “I understand the conflict between nurses is difficult, and nurses always fall into anxiety and stress, and it affects the physical and mental health of nurses. At the same time, it increases the probability of error occurrence.”
My conflict with the senior nurse is interpersonal conflict. It happens between people, because of differences, competition, or interest (Finkelman, 2016, p323). In fact, I think this kind of conflict is unavoidable in all organizations, and its nature has two sides. It may have a positive impact on the organization’s performance, and it also has a negative impact. There are four stages of conflict. The first stage is latent stage. The latent stage is the germination stage before the conflict arises. This stage of conflict is also a secondary contradiction, and employees do not realize to the existence of conflict. This stage does not necessarily lead to the occurrence of conflicts, but the necessary conditions for the occurrence of conflicts and the causes of conflicts have been met. With the change of the environment, latent conflicts may disappear or may be intensified. And the conflict I experienced went through this stage, too. At the beginning, I was asked to do the most difficult work without getting the help and guidance I deserved. I didn’t get guidance, but I think this is a learning opportunity. I didn’t think it was a conflict. I just felt tired. The second stage is perceived conflict. At this stage, employees have felt the existence of conflict, but have not yet realized the importance of conflict, the conflict has not yet taken the actual harm to employees. If employees take action timely, they can ease the conflict that will erupt in the future. I have passed this stage, but I think it is only short period of time. After a period, I began to perceive the existence of conflict, and I accepted my own explanation and comfort, I feel that all this hard work is a trial that I deserve. I didn’t try to communicate with my nurse or any leader and has led to further development of conflicts. Next stage is felt conflict. This conflict has already had an impact on employees’ emotion. Employees may be indignant about unfair treatment. Different employees feel different about conflicts, which is related to the personality of the employees, values and other factors. For a long time, I clearly felt her bad attitude towards me, and the conflict had clearly existed. I began to feel pressure on the work of nurses. I was emotionally unstable and began to feel uneasy and even unable to concentrate on my work. I am not a person who dare to speak and express my opinions. I dare not talk with the nurse or superior. I accepted whatever the nurse asked me to do because I needed the job and I had my family that needed my care. The last stage is manifest conflict. Employees need to deal with conflicts, and there are many ways to deal with them. There are different ways of dealing with different conflicts. Even in the same conflict, different employees take different measures. But there will always be consequences for conflict management. Different treatments will produce different results. The result may be beneficial to the parties concerned and may be harmful to them. When the conflict is completely resolved, the effect of the result will continue. But in many cases, the conflict has not been completely resolved, and the result is only a phased result. Sometimes even dealing with a conflict will bring several other conflicts. And I didn’t have enough power to solve the conflict. I was defeated by the conflict. I started to avoid my nurse, and I didn’t want to have any communication with her. I couldn’t help complaining to a few colleagues about what I have suffered. Because I do not have the ability to solve the conflict, I face a vicious cycle every day. Until I could not help explaining it to my supervisor, he transferred me to another department.
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I think my nurse is unfair in terms of delegating. I was assigned the most difficult task, but I was also assigned to work unrelated to my nurse’s title. Clinicians or nursing leaders should have effective delegating abilities. Effective delegation can unify all the team members work and cooperate together, work can be managed well. A successful delegation can increase the sense of teamwork and collaboration. But if an improper delegation is assigned, it will cause conflict and affect the relationship between colleagues (Laskowski, 2014). A proper delegation must follow five rights: the right task, the right situation, the right person, the right communication, and the right instructions (Motacki & Burke, 2017). I was assigned to help her buy food and running errands, it wasn’t my job, and I believe it wasn’t match any of the five rights. She used her superiority unfairly to ask me to do things that I am not supposed to. However, I was assigned the most difficult patients at the same time, but I was just a newly graduated nurse, I needed her to communicate with me and instruct me to help me complete my task. It was a failed delegation because I didn’t finish my assignment as scheduled, and I was aware of the conflict that affected my relationship with her. K. Thomas and his colleagues came up with two kinds of methods to resolve conflicts. Negotiation and administrative intervention can resolve my conflicts (Simpao, 2013).
The two-dimensional space model proposed by K. Thomas and his colleagues argues that conflict resolution must focus on interpersonal communication skills, determine the appropriate order of problem solving, and find a constructive solution to the conflict at one time. There are five strategies to deal with conflicts in the two-dimensional model, they are compel, avoidance, compromise, accommodation and cooperation. I think two strategies are suitable for solving my conflict, they are compromise and adaptation. Compromise means two parties make concessions to reach an agreement. Both sides of the conflict give up their part of interests and meet the other’s part of the needs. Compromise is an integral part of the negotiations. Adaptation refers to stressing the common interests of both sides in a tense conflict situation, trying to weaken the differences between the two sides of the conflict and reduce the degree of tension in the conflict. To conform to the emotional aspect of conflict, it can play a temporary effect. This approach can be adopted when both parties are in a situation of contingency or need to maintain reconciliation to avoid division in a short period of time. I thought the nurse would make a difference to me because my concession, and it will satisfy the nurse. For a time, I silently became an obedient nurse. But obedient nurses are not supermen, unable to complete unreasonable assignments and excessive work. When I couldn’t finish the unreasonable assignment, and faced with my nurse’s anger, I tried to force myself to do most urgent tasks. However, these two methods can temporarily solve the urgent needs only, and our relationship continued to deteriorate.
K. Thomas and his colleagues proved negotiation, arbitration, and administrative intervention can resolve conflicts. Negotiation includes distributive negotiation and integrative negotiations (Anghelus & Boncu, 2011). I think distributive negotiations can solve our conflicts. Distributive negotiation is both parties focus on a fixed interest and decide how to divide it. Negotiators have their own goals to achieve, but also their own minimum acceptable level that is the point of contact. A reconciliation can be found within the range of the wishes of both sides. After a period of time, I discussed my concern and workload with my nurse. I expressed I needed some guidance and instruction to complete my tasks. However, the nurse is only willing to give partial guidance, still heavy workload, and run errands. At this point, the negotiation broke down. In this mode, another way to solve the conflict is arbitration. If negotiations between the two parties to the conflict are still invalid. They may invite a third party or a higher-level supervisor with certain influence and mutual trust or legality to mediate and settle the dispute and arbitrate it to settle the conflict. After a period of time, I was so nervous that I decided to seek the help of a higher level of leadership in order to avoid mistakes in my work and to make no adverse effects on patients or the facility. After investigation and understanding, the superior criticized and educated my nurse and transferred me to another department. At the point, conflict resolved. Arbitration is the most effective solution to me. Despite the fact that the nurse’s self-imposed act has no major fault, it has made me extremely nervous and anxious. I had no conditions for confrontation, compromise and accommodation could not meet her requirements, and the negotiations were unsuccessful, so I had to seek the help of leaders at a higher level. The intervention of supervisor made me understand and let my nurse realized her mistake.
I think that compromise and adaptation cannot solve the conflict all the time. If the conflict is not mitigated or eliminated in a short period of time, I must negotiate with each other to find the goals each other want to achieve or minimum acceptable level. Finding a third-party superior to lead the arbitration settlement is my last step, the measures I took after I tried my own ways to deal with.
