Conflict Management
Gage Reichert
The biggest communication skill one can use in a conflict is proper listening. Listening and focusing on who you are speaking to shows your open mind and willingness to change. The other people in the conflict feel heard and feel their opinions matter more. Listening does not have to mean agreeing with the person. A few practical ways one can show they are listening is by keeping eye contact and keeping your body language quiet and focused on the other person.
A hot button is anything done by other people that causes an extreme emotional reaction. These emotional triggers can directly lead to conflict. My hot button is when coworkers are overly critical of one another or argue in front of patients. Polite disagreement and of care can occur in front of patients if the patient is at risk, but most disagreements should be had away from the patient. Arguing about care in front of patient or family can cause them to lose confidence in the care they are receiving. The patient and family members will feel uncomfortable in the hostile environment. These situations can cause all the healthcare personnel involved to feel humiliated and less professional. There are many conflict management techniques one can implement to help when faced with hot button issues. An important quote I remember from the Youtube presentation by Lorraine Segal was “Feelings are not facts.” Sometimes other people’s opinions damage our self-esteem because we assume they are truth. In a conflict, we need to remember that the feelings and arguments from your coworkers are not the facts of the situation. Proper listening can help one understand the views of coworkers in a conflict. We also must not attribute ill intentions to those against us in a conflict. An important technique when facing a hot button issue is to not blame other people in a conflict and to make a conscious effort to acknowledge your part. We can also utilize focused and attentive body language.
I agree with you,we should keep a professional conduct at all time. Our patients deserve the best care possible but sometimes conflicts are difficult to handle, sometimes I feel like they can be beneficial as long as one remains professional with the patient. Especially if the company were to educate employees on how to handle a potential conflict or ongoing one.
I also agree that education on how to treat conflict could be extremely beneficial. Lorraine Segel also said that it is important to breathe. It seems insignificant until you stop and think about it. Making yourself focus on breathing also makes you stop and think about why you are so upset to begin with. Listening can come easier after this. Your hot button is something that I also struggle with. Another one that bothers me is when nurses start to treat their aides or patient care techs like they are nothing. It is so important to work together in nursing.
I agree with you, it is important to be an active listener during conflict management. I think it is important to avoid unnecessary conflict or allowing conflict to fester and remain unresolved undermines which can result in dissatisfied staff and turnover. The way we communicate has an impact on our workplace environment.
I agree with you regarding your “hot button”. I never understood why some people would rather argue about care instead of taking it in as a learning opportunity. Arguing with a coworker in front of patients is unacceptable in my opinion should never happen, although I know if does more often than not! That person should be confronted in a place that is separate from the patient care area. There are quite a few people in health care that cannot take constructive criticism and that is unfortunate because how else do you learn from your mistakes? Great post!
One of my reason to not comfortable to do bed side report is to have conflict with next shift about my care during my shift. I do not know how react next shift nurse about what is going on the patient and what I did or did not do or I made mistake or misunderstanding treatment plan. Conflict between staffs about nursing care goal, I believe one of step to better care for patient but end up to conflict front of patients is very bad for nursing care or relationship between patients and nurses, so we need to remember patients first