Conflict Resolution in Nursing: 5 Best Practices for Facilities

With nursing shortages on the rise, improving nurse satisfaction and creating strong, team-oriented organizational cultures is essential to the wellbeing of any healthcare facility. Prioritizing those healthy team dynamics means being proactive about inevitabilities, such as the need for conflict resolution in nursing.

What Is Conflict Resolution in Nursing?

It is the framework employed to solve a dispute between a nurse and anyone they may experience a conflict with while in the healthcare setting. This doesn’t have to be strictly nurse-to-nurse and instead might involve a patient or their family member — or even a physician or supervisor.

Why Is Conflict Resolution Important in Nursing?

Many nurses are great problem solvers (it’s an integral part of their job), but the daily pressures of a full patient load and mounting to-do lists can often make conflict resolution difficult, even for the most seasoned professionals. That’s where the necessity of managerial intervention and a framework with multiple conflict resolution strategies comes into play.

To help minimize the risk factors for conflict and its damaging effects, nurse leaders must commit to a culture of conflict mitigation and resolution. Failure to be proactive risks not only the satisfaction of their nurses, but also jeopardizes the linked satisfaction scores and outcomes of their patients.

How to Facilitate Effective Communication and Conflict Resolution in Nursing: 5 Tips

Here are five best practices to inform your proactive approach to conflict that will help the work culture not only survive, but thrive amid normal workplace tensions.

1. Establish a Culture of Professionalism

The first step to tackling conflict is to address it before it begins. This means creating a unit culture of zero tolerance for disrespect and unprofessional behaviors, from the overt — like physical violence — to the less obvious, such as gossip and negativity.

Suggestions:

• Ensure workplace roles are transparent and clarify expected behaviors during new employee orientation, regular team meetings, and staff training and education.
• Stop gossip from initiating conflict in nursing staff by proactively addressing rumors with the responsible parties and during team meetings.
• Develop preceptor programs that reject bullying and intimidation tactics for orienting new nurses.
• Create training initiatives like de-escalation focused programs and conflict resolution courses to equip personnel with the skills to mitigate and resolve problems.
• Utilize risk assessment tools and standardized action plans to ensure workplace safety for nurses while delivering care.

2. Encourage Open Communication

Communication sets the foundation for conflict resolution in nursing. Good communication improves patient outcomes and benefits nursing morale. Consistent and clear communication isn’t just a tool for mediating conflict; it can prevent the misunderstandings and frustrations that often lead to conflict in the first place.

Suggestions:

• Implement an open door policy and insist other nurse leaders do the same so that leadership is the first to know about any problems.
• Commit to daily leadership rounding and frequent debriefs to facilitate communication and encourage supervisory awareness of on-the-floor issues.
• Utilize regular team meetings to encourage staff to vocalize their frustrations before they snowball into open conflict. Offer multiple time slots to improve engagement for nurses with varied shift schedules.
• Express appreciation whenever nurses vocalize a problem to encourage authenticity and reduce fear of reprisal. Whether the problem is with scheduling or an interpersonal conflict, thank the nurse for trusting management with the concern.

3. Intervene When Conflict Arises

This is the most obvious aspect of conflict resolution, yet it’s often one of the hardest to initiate. Conflict is uncomfortable, and confronting tension is never easy. Regardless, addressing the issue in a direct, timely fashion decreases the risk of the problem escalating and potentially impeding the delivery of safe, effective care.

Suggestions:

• Address conflicts immediately, allowing for a cooling off period if tensions are too high for productive conversation.
• Establish a point of contact for each shift (like a charge nurse or nurse manager during regular hours) who has been trained on effective communication strategies and has access to predetermined ground rules for guiding mediation.
• Designate a quiet, neutral space (such as a meeting room) that is separate from the care environment when possible, to utilize for resolution efforts.
• Ensure crucial conversations happen face-to-face or using video technology when in-person is not an available option. Avoid email and messaging services when addressing conflict.

4. Demonstrate Trust and Respect

Nurses want to know that leadership is on their side, and this is especially true during confrontation. By creating a baseline culture where team members feel valued and trusted, they’re more open to participating in the conflict resolution framework because there is a precedent of respect for their role and opinions.

Suggestions:

• Build rapport by engaging employees and getting to know them on a personal level.
• Contribute to nursing trust and sense of belonging by routinely celebrating nurses for their achievements (attaining specialty certifications or winning awards, for example) and recognize hard work during shift huddles or team meetings.
• Incorporate the use of active listening during conflict mediation and other therapeutic communication techniques to ensure that people feel heard.
• Allow everyone engaged in the conflict the chance to speak, using redirection instead of cessation techniques if the conversation becomes unproductive.

5. Document and Pursue Follow Up

Every conflict presents an opportunity for team and institutional growth. Documentation and continued follow-up of each occurrence can help identify the stressors that led to conflict and evolve current strategies for conflict resolution in nursing.

Suggestions

• Take notes during all conflict mediations and centralize data on workplace conflict for continued reference.
• Analyze conflict data, track trends, and address patterns.
• Debrief the concerned parties in the conflict after a standardized amount of time to ensure that resolution has been fully realized.
• Highlight resources — including mental health services, mindfulness courses, emotional intelligence training, and others — that may further assist individuals in the resolution process.

Interested in Other Ways to Strengthen Your Team Culture?

Conflict resolution in nursing frameworks are one of the many ways to strengthen organizational culture. IntelyCare can help you grow your teamwork toolkit with continuously updated best practice recommendations and system optimization guides.