Conflict Management In Nursing Clinical Placements Essay.

Describe about the Transition To Practice.

Causes of Conflict in Health Arena

Clinical placement is an integral component of student learning in nursing that provides students an opportunity to work with a supportive nursing preceptor and experience a safe and meaningful learning environment (Reyes et al., 2015). This can help the student to acquire the learning experience and decrease the perceived stress. However, due to the lack of communication between the health professionals and the difference in authority the health professionals give rise to the conflict between students and patients. The student will further feel stressed neglected and isolated. This paper will illustrate Discuss informal and formal procedures for dealing with conflict, critical analysis of the case study and recommendation in the following paragraph.

Conflict in the health arena is a growing concern and mostly showed as the extreme expression of workplace violence. There are many pieces of evidence accumulate that suggested that many conflicts remain satisfactory and unresolved and resulted in the diminishing of the staff morale in the workplace (Frich et al., 2015). There are few common causes of the conflict that affect the work environment along with the productivity. Therefore, managing conflict is essential in order to enhance the workplace environment along with the relationship between co-workers. In this case study, there is an interpersonal conflict observed in between Shannon who is a third-year undergraduate nurse on clinical placement at the Charles Darwin University and his preceptor. Shannon was offended due to the comments tossed by his preceptor and found it stereotypic, ageist and sarcastic in the certain context. Consequently, he felt it was workplace bully and refuse to go to the hospital the next day.  When conflict cannot be resolved through individual’s discussion, employs may initiate a formal complaint resolution process by filing a complaint or grievance. In this case, informing the higher authority to look into the matter of the conflict is the formal way of managing conflict.  A formal complaint should be registered in the higher authority regarding the area of concern, time, date, and place of the conflict in the workplace. After formal complaints are made, the investigation should be done by the authority followed by the decision making, establishing goals and collaboration (Brown et al., 2016). Conflicts can be managed to apply informal ways for resolving the issues. Conflict is formed between two professional when there is a massive gap in the communication created due to the difference in mindset. Therefore, communication is the most essential factor to resolve the conflict. In this context, Shannon should talk to his preceptor about his area of concern that he was offended because of the commend Jennifer tossed at him and he found it stereotypic, ageist and sarcastic (Rahim, 2017). Listening carefully to the other person without any interruption and asking the clarifying question is essential to reduce the conflict between to health professionals. In order to manage the conflict, identification of the area where both agrees and disagrees should be done. Follow up plan should be designed where both the individual will share their thought process, looking for opportunities to make progress for managing the conflict in the workplace (Brown et al., 2016).This will further build a healthy relationship in the workplace between health professionals, resolve the communication gap between professionals, reduce the stereotypic concepts of both the individuals and enhance productivity along with the success of individuals.

Case Study - Interpersonal Conflict between a nursing student and preceptor

This case study represents the professional conflict between third-year undergraduate student Shannon Doe and his preceptor Jennifer Lee at the emergency department of Charles Darwin university hospital. In the first day of the placement, due to poor skills and a shortage of the staffs, his preceptor offered him to work with her for a limited period of the time, only for the first shift. She instructed him to work through the self-directed learning modules on the infection, WHS, mandatory reporting and aggression.  In the clinical placement of emergency room, she should acquire the holistic knowledge regarding medical practices instead he acquires knowledge in certain clinical areas for a limited period of time. Therefore, poor clarity of the role of the preceptor and misunderstanding by the student observed which further led to the mental conflict (Wallensteen, 2015).c

 In the second day, Jennifer asked him about the acquired knowledge of Shannon and stated that she was aware of the scope of the practice and she will discuss the placement with Shannon. Shannon found the comment of her ageist and stereotypic.  After handover the clinical responsibility, Jennifer instructed that she will look after two patients, bed number has a patient of leukemia where she asked Shannon about the clinical assessment and after answering that she complimented him. The complement of the Jennifer was sarcastic according to the mindset of Shannon. Here, interpersonal conflict arises between two professional individuals. This occurs typically because of wrong interpretation of expression, the varied mental makeup of two different individuals associated with the previous adverse experiences (Thomas, 2017).  Later, during the assessment of next patient who was suffering from croup, Jennifer asked him about the disease and interrupted him by the instruction to take care of other things. He felt dismissed and prioritized clinical needs over the clinical education. Here, the behaviour of Jennifer reflects her judgmental and stereotypic mentality towards Shannon. Moreover, the knowledge of clinical practices of Shannon was interrupted which is an ethical violence in clinical premises since it hinders the accomplishment of the nursing goal (Martyn,  Zanella & Wilkinson, 2017).

In the third day, Jennifer and Shannon are allocated to the cubicles 1 to 4.after handing over the clinical responsibility, Shannon has about monitored the vital signs of a male patient with pneumonia and observed that he was non-responsive. After repetitive medical incidence, Jennifer dismissed her from the further responsibilities and did not invite her for Debrief which was a good learning opportunity for Shannon; however, she was excluded and ignored that has an adverse effect on the student.  Denied learning opportunities, ignored and exclusion are the form of bully that can be solved by proper communication ( Folger, Poole ,& Stutman, 2017).

Dealing with Conflict - Formal and Informal Procedures

The next day Shannon called the nursing unit manager and informed him that she could not come referring to the behaviour of Jennifer as the bully. Here, she felt offended after repetitive events of adverse experiences.

The recommendation to foster Shannon’s resilience in future placement:

The case study represents the professional conflict between third-year undergraduate student Shannon Doe and his preceptor Jennifer lee which hinders the scope of clinical practice in clinical practices. In order to regulate the nursing practices, nursing and midwifery board of Australia set the specific standard that enhances the placement procedure for nurses and helps to place the nurses who acquire excellent clinical skills to quire the patient-centric care. In the context of the case study, where an interpersonal conflict between two professionals disrupts the workplace stability, the standards help her to cope up with the workplace difficulties. According to Adrian & Chiarella, (2015)., the standard 2 can aid her in overcoming the difficulties for the future placement.  Standard 2 suggests the engagement of both the parties in a therapeutic and professional relationship in clinical premises. It shows the collegial generosity in the context of mutual trust and respect in the professional relationship. Therefore, it should be recommended to accept the comments of the preceptors with positive thinking and trust her instructor in the clinical practices and talk about her concern openly to the instructor (Martyn, Zanella,  & Wilkinson, 2017).. This will help her to overcome the mental conflict with her instructor, build the therapeutic relationship with the instructor and this will further lead to collaborative practice. According to Russell, Williamson & Hobson, (2017), the standard six is applicable for her future replacement for coping up with the difficulties. Standard six suggested to the practices within the scope of the practices.  It provides comprehensive, safe and quality achieve the agreed goal .The practice should be done in accordance with the relevant policies, guidelines, and ethics (Fagan, Parker & Jackson, 2016). In this context, in order to obtain the comprehensive and safe practices, it should be recommended to the Shannon to manage the conflict informal way. She should fill up formal application stating her issues that hinder her clinical practices and talk to her preceptor regarding her area of concern for that will hinder her clinical practices. This will help her in conducting safe and quality of the practices in the clinical field ( chan, Sit & Lau, 2014). Moreover, acquiring the leadership quality by taking the responsibility of the actions will help Shannon to build self-confidence and enhance her critical thinking in accomplishing the goal. Moreover, managing the conflict with the help of conflict management models will help her to maintain the healthy relationship in the workplace.

Recommendations for Fostering Resilience in Future Placements

To conclude, during the clinical placement undergraduate students often experience stress in the new environment. Developing resilience with the help of NMBA standard will help them to cope up with stress by without giving up the profession.

Conclusion:

Thus it can be concluded that, the integral component of student learning in nursing that provides students an opportunity to work with a supportive nursing preceptor and experience safe and meaningful learning environment. However, conflict can be raised in the health arena is a growing concern and mostly showed as the extreme expression of workplace violence.  The conflict can be managed in the formal and informal way by communicating with workers. The standards of NMBA can be useful to reduce such conflict and enhance clinical practice.

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