Nursing from Conflict Perspective

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Nursing from Conflict Perspective
Introduction
It is important to start by giving a rather simplistic definition of conflict which goes straight to
the point. The Tear Fund (2003:1) writes that, conflict happens when two or more people or groups
have, or think they have, incompatible goals.
Conflict among nurses can be approached from various perspectives. In other words, conflict is
a multi-dimensional subject. From a naive point of view, it can be seen as the vital role which nurses
play during armed conflict, for example, wars and so on. However, looking inwardly, there is another
side of the coin- managing conflict between nurses and their colleagues, with patients and with
superiors, etc. Ignoring conflict in the workplace can be destructive. This paper focuses on selected
ways by which conflict manifests in nursing.
Theoretical Perspective
Many conflict theorists agree that conflict recurring reality in social organizations. Nursing is
not an exception. Parker (2008:1) supports this notion when she writes that, any work setting certainly
has the potential for conflicts, and an acute hospital setting is no different. The issues that occur
between staff, and during attempts to initiate new procedures are not unique to the medical profession,
and do not, in fact, represent the hospital situations portrayed in television soap operas.
Furthermore, leading theorists Marx and Engels (1965:26) state that conflict is bound occur in
society because various groups have diverse interests which clash with one another. The clash between
one group and another often results in a social problem when that conflict is not quickly resolved.
Nurses work in an environment that is prone to conflict in various ways. Nurses have to deal with
patients, doctors, colleagues, etc. Each of these relationships and communication channels can result in
conflict if not handled appropriately.
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Varying shades of conflict in nursing: related studies
Conflict is a manifest in many ways as nurses carry out their duty. Selected types of conflict in
nursing are discussed in this section.
Time as a source of conflict
In the study “Time as a source of conflict: Student nurse experiences of clinical practice in a
rural setting” Dalton (2004:1) analyzed the experiences of undergraduate student nurses who were on
their first engagements in rural clinical practice. The study sought to find out the meaning which these
nursing students attached to time in a rural setting as their previous conception of time was dislodged.
It sought to find out what meaning these students attached to time in a rural setting considering that
they were city bred. The study used ethnographic research method drawn up by Geertz and the
hermeneutic philosophy by Gadamer. Dalton (2004: 3) found that, the students needed to learn about
the rural setting before they could get down to the job of caring for patients.
Conflict in the workplace
People are bound to disagree in the work place. While subordinates are expected to listen to
superiors, they may disagree among peers. Payami Bousari et al (2009:1) explore the experiences of
Iranian nurses in conflicts which occur in the workplace in the study, “The process of nurse’s
interpersonal conflict: qualitative study.” This study which undertooks a qualitative approach used
unstructured serial interviews administered on sixteen nurses working in teaching hospitals in different
cities in Iran. The data that was collected was analyzed using a comparative approach. Payami Bousari
et al (2009:1) found that the interpersonal conflicts among these nurses were based on trivial issues
instead of professional duties- i.e. tasks which the nurses were assigned.
Conflict and new administrative procedure
Conflict does not occur in a vacuum. There is often a condition that sparks it off. One study
notes that although conflict is a frequently occurring phenomenon, it may be sparked of among nurses 
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due to an introduction of new administrative procedure. According to the College of Nurses of Ontario
(2009: 1),
Recently, conflict arose among nurses when the unit moved to a total patient care
delivery model from a team nursing model. Some nurses are struggling with this adjustment,
particularly around individual workload management. Lately, arguments and refusal to help
each other have become issues on the unit. There is a feeling of sink-or-swim during peak times
as nurses work more and more in isolation…
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…References
Adali, E. and Priami, M. (2002) “Burnout among nurses in intensive care units, internal
medicine wards and emergency departments in Greek hospitals” ICU and Nursing Web Journal Issue
11 (July-September 2002) Retrieved 11th January 2009 from http://www.nursing.gr/burnout.pdf
Bousari, Payami M., Ebrahimi, H. Ahmadi, F., Abedi H. A., Kennedy N., (2009) The Process
of Nurses Interpersonal Conflict: Qualitative Study Research Journal of Biological Sciences 4 (2)
Retrie