How to Deal With Difficult Coworkers in Nursing

If you’re facing challenging relationships at work, you might be wondering how to deal with difficult coworkers. Conflict in the workplace happens in every profession, but in nursing and medicine, failing to maintain interpersonal relationships can negatively impact patients. Learning to manage conflicts can help you avoid unnecessary stress and even become a better nurse.

Nursing can be a very stressful job. In many settings, lives are on the line every day, and a single mistake or drop in communication can have massive consequences. This is an enormous amount of pressure to work under.

At the same time, nurses have complex lives, and you never know what people are dealing with at home. How do you get along with coworkers in situations where everyone’s stress levels are high? And if you get into trouble with coworkers in your unit, what resources are at your disposal?

Let’s explore the research on interpersonal conflicts in nursing, then give practical tips on how to deal with difficult coworkers as a nurse.

Why Workplace Conflicts Happen in Nursing

Conflict among nurses is common, especially in acute care settings. Nurses work in a highly charged environment, which can sometimes become an emotional pressure cooker. Below are some of the most prevalent reasons why you might be having trouble getting along with a coworker:

• Working conditions: Short staffing, inadequate supplies, and poor treatment from patients can contribute to conflict.
• Poor communication: This can come from a lack of communication or a misunderstanding of information that was shared.
• Stress: Nurses are often asked to do more with less, and high stress can leave people feeling more sensitive and angry.
• Disagreements about task priority: Coworkers may have conflicting ideas about what needs to be done first.
• Personality traits: People who display high levels of neuroticism, for example, may be more predisposed to conflict.

Whatever the cause of conflict, ongoing interpersonal issues can be demotivating for staff, diminish job satisfaction, and hurt the effectiveness of the entire team. A negative work environment contributes to medical errors, lower care quality, and worsened patient experiences.

If conflict is bad enough, team members may choose to leave, and there are some situations where a change in job setting can solve the problem. But first, check out our tips on how to deal with difficult coworkers as a nurse.

How to Deal With a Difficult Coworker as a Nurse

Research shows that when nurses are asked how to get along with difficult coworkers, five major trends appear. If your relationship with a coworker has grown tense, consider the following conflict management strategies, and remember that you’ll likely use more than one:

1. Accommodation

It might sound counterintuitive, but one of the first methods to use in workplace conflict is accommodation. This approach maintains harmony and avoids further conflict escalation. This conflict style is most common among younger nurses, who may be predisposed to avoiding conflict, but it’s also used among more experienced nurses, who may have learned to pick their battles.

Examples of accommodation:

• Choosing not to challenge a coworker’s abrupt tone in the moment to focus on keeping the unit running smoothly.
• Deferring to a colleague’s routine workflow to avoid escalating tension during a busy shift.
• Volunteering to switch shifts with a coworker you don’t get along with who is having a family emergency.

2. Collaboration

The second-most common conflict management style, collaboration, is when you try to work together to manage a problem. Newer nurses are especially likely to use this style, as it also helps avoid conflict and can keep things running smoothly.

Examples of collaboration:

• In a disagreement between two nurses about patient assignments, one nurse suggests that they share one patient to distribute the workload fairly.
• A nurse disagrees with a new documentation requirement and asks to work with with the unit manager to find a solution.
• A bedside nurse and charge nurse have different opinions on managing a complex patient, so they bring in the hospitalist team to run a full care plan review.

3. Compromise

Compromising, or meeting in the middle, is less common among nurses because patient care decisions typically require clear accountability and consistency. Compromise can still play an important role in resolving workplace conflicts when two nurses have competing needs or equally important priorities. Rather than one person fully giving in, compromise allows both parties to make small concessions to reach a workable solution.

Examples of compromise:

• Nurses disagree about break timing during a busy shift and settle on shortened but evenly distributed breaks so everyone gets some rest.
• A nurse wants to float less often, while the charge nurse needs to balance staffing, so they agree on limited floating with advance notice when possible.
• A nurse doesn’t want to precept every shift, but the unit needs coverage, so the nurse agrees to precept on designated days rather than full-time.

4. Avoidance

If you’ve exhausted other options and are still struggling to get along with a coworker, distancing yourself may be the next strategy. Experienced and managerial nurses are more likely to use this method. However, avoidance has its challenges, and it’s not always possible. If you’re working together on a shift, for example, avoidance may lead to a communication breakdown.

Examples of avoidance:

• After a disagreement about charting preferences, a nurse avoids further discussion and follows unit policy to prevent escalating tension.
• When a coworker makes a dismissive comment during rounds, a nurse opts to disengage rather than argue publicly.
• A nurse notices recurring friction with a colleague but avoids confrontation until a charge nurse or manager can help facilitate a productive conversation.

5. Competition

When asked how to deal with difficult coworkers, competition is one of the least common strategies that nurses report. This may be because competition can add to, and even heighten, conflict, rather than resolve it. Positive competition requires structure, and all parties need to be motivated by the desire for self-improvement, rather than dominating others.

Examples of competition:

• Two nurses who disagree about best practices for wound care independently review evidence-based guidelines and share their findings with the team, letting them decide on new protocols.
• Nurses on a unit compare patient satisfaction scores and challenge each other to improve communication and bedside manner, resulting in better care.
• Two nurses with different charting styles agree to audit their documentation for accuracy and efficiency, using the comparison as a way to learn rather than criticise.

Gain Conflict Management Skills in Nursing

Having a coworker you don’t get along with can be challenging, but it’s also an opportunity to learn how to deal with conflict, which is inevitable both at work and in life. You’ll find different types of difficult coworkers across work settings. When navigating challenging interactions, try to follow these tips:

• Be open and communicative.
• Try to find the root cause of the conflict.
• Practice empathy for others.
• Document confrontations when necessary.

Check out our other articles to learn more:

• Conflict resolution in nursing
• De-escalation training for healthcare workers
• How to use assertive communication in healthcare
• How to prevent workplace bullying in nursing
• What you can do to address workplace violence in nursing

What to Do If These Tips Don’t Work

Sometimes a situation feels impossible to navigate on your own. If you are dealing with incivility from a coworker, or you feel that patient care is being jeopardised, it may be time to escalate to a manager. Depending on your workplace, your first point of contact will be a charge nurse, nurse manager, or nursing supervisor. Learn more about the nursing chain of command.

If you choose to bring up an issue with leadership, be sure to do so in private. You might ask for a moment with your manager after your next shift change or during lunch. Try to stick to the facts and avoid complaining or gossiping. Consider sending a follow-up email to summarise the issue and create a paper trail in case further action is needed.

Choose a Better Workplace

Still not sure how to deal with difficult coworkers? Sometimes the only solution is a new role. Luckily, we can help you find those. Learn more with personalized job notifications that let you know when opportunities open up.