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Submitted by: Khadija Moh’d # 20220169 A paper submitted in partial fulfillment Of the requirements of # 0503321 Ms. Wadeaa Al-Daghestani University of Sharjah June 18, 2004 Learn Approach To Explore June 18, 2004 was the date of publishing the nursing duty Rota of the MMW where I am having my clinical practicum. During this day, an incident happened through which I came to know how the manager have an immense burden of responsibilities and tasks and one of them is to write the duty list; once performing this task, a lot of disagreement aroused.
It was around 10 o’clock, early morning, when the in-charge distributed the duty list to the MMW, CCU, and nursing office. Once the list was hanged, all the staff rushed toward it like the students who were waiting to their exam results anxiously. At the bottom of the list she (the in-charg) wrote, ” To all MMW staff: As Sr. X & Sr. E resigned, please try to co-operate with me. Thanks”. By writing those wards, the in-charge was most likely predicting opposition from her staff. I was there observing their reaction. Majority of them were displeased; some kept silent while others were mumbling.
One staff nurse, who was so angry, went directly to the in-charge and the conversation flow: Staff nurse: Why didn’t you consider my duty request? I know that you used to consider for the staff who are special to you. (In angry voice tone) In-charge: You are mature and I didn’t expect this response from you. Is that the cooperation that I asked you for? Staff nurse: Sister! I am full mature, but in this hospital I am not. (Screaming) In-charge: Do you feel that it is very easy to write a duty rota in a ward where all the staff have duty requests. In addition, you know that we have shortage.
Try to exchange your duty with other staff. Staff nurse: Why every time I should beg other staff to change the duty. Today I will not be silent anymore. If you didn’t change my duty, I will be absent. I don’t care if I am going to receive a warning letter (in loud voice). All patient were hearing the sharp discussion between the nurse and the in-charge. From the serious faces I had seen in the room, I had begun to wonder whether they would end up with a solution. In fact, it didn’t appear that anyone was going to change their minds one way or another.
The “battle” last for ten minutes and the conflict did not resolved. While fighting, the in-charge explained for both the staff and me some the steps of writing a duty rota (because I asked her two days before). Whether the conflict is caused by the staff nurse, the manager, or by an outsider, it can be used as a positive learning experience. As I recalled the situation, I found that the nurse and the in-charge went through dysfunctional interpersonal conflict. As stated by (Boggs& Arnold, 1999) in dysfunctional conflict the feelings are expressed strongly, misperceived and the conflict is not resolved.
Expressing our emotions in an aggression way put the listener in defensive way because he/she feels attacked. Regardless of what the conflict is, a good manager will know how to deal with that conflict in a way that promotes communication and working together to resolve the situation. In the former situation, the in-charge didn’t handle the situation well. It is very imperative for any manger to have conflict management skills through which he/she could resolve the endless staff and customer problems. There are several general rules that the person should follow whenever trying to bring harmony to an explosive situation.
Here they are: reflect your understanding of the other’s situation or feelings, let the other person know that you value him/her as a person even though his/her opinion is different from yours and state your opinion (Thimm, 2002). The most important step is make sure that all sides to an issue totally understand each other before try to spot the appropriate solutions (Thimm, 2002). Adding up, the staff nurse lacked the assertive behavior and instead she was aggressive. Assertiveness is the ability to express your needs and rights, positive or negative feelings without iolating the rights and limits of others (Winkler, 2003). While aggressiveness is suppressing the other person’s rights. It is obvious from the scenario that the nurse was previously behaving in a passive manner in which she denied her own rights i. e. “Today I will not be silent anymore”. Though, when trying to stand for her rights she become aggressive and attacked the in-charge with words that described her with bias and unfairness. I admit that when I used to get angry, I never talked about my problem or to the person I was angry at. I held it inside until I exploded in a negative way.
Watching how the staff exploded her accumulative, hidden emotions directed me to learn how to express myself better and say what’s on my mind instead of keeping it inside. I learned from this incident that, one could solve problems without using aggression. We have to speak up our problems. We have to be smart and willing to work things out. If I faced the same situation, I would use conflict resolution skills and present my self assertively. In addition, I believe that I need to join workshops to learn these skills. Looking back I realized that, if I have to deal with other people, I will, sooner or later, have to deal with conflict.
The key to managing conflict effectively is to learn the skills necessary to become a good conflict manager as our profession demands. References Boggs, K. & Arnold, E. (1999). Interpersonal Relationships (3rd edition). Philadelphia, W. B. Sauders Company. Winkler, M. (2003). Assertive Behavior. Retrieved on June 18, 2004, from: http://web4health. info/en/answers/life-assertive-right. htm Thimm, R. (2002). Successful Conflict Resolution. Retrieved on June 18, 2004, from: http://www. advanceforpac. com/common/Editorial/Editorial. aspx? CC=253