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Sample Essay #1

Conflict Management

Conflict is an inevitable aspect of human relations. It occurs because individuals have uniquely different personalities that inform their interests in group settings. Conflict is also an inherent part of health care organizational culture and management (Higazee, 2015). This paper describes a conflict situation that I handled in the health care organization for which I work. In the paper, I also reflect on the effectiveness of the style I used to resolve the conflict, and whether or not I would use the same style if a similar conflict occurred today. I conclude the paper by relating the conflict management style and leadership effectiveness.

Conflict situation

There are five ways to resolve conflicts in an organization, namely accommodation, avoidance, collaboration, competition and compromise (Marquis & Huston, 2015). I currently work as an assistant nursing manager at the inpatient unit of a psychiatric hospital. I first joined the hospital as a student. At the time, the then assistant nurse manager was a middle-aged man who was very difficult to work with. He seemingly exhibited an inexplicable grudge against the new staff and students. I once arrived five minutes late for my shift. He called me to the office and took over twenty minutes explaining to me why I was careless and negligent. He threatened to write a letter to my college to report that I was incompetent and poorly trained.

One evening I walked into his office and confronted him over his open hatred for student nurses. I told him he was unnecessarily harsh and combative. At first, he was furious at me. After a while, he told me that his only daughter had refused to study nursing. He hated to see other young people who had chosen the profession of nursing. He confessed that he actually loved his job so much that he wished his only child had followed in his footsteps. He said he hated to see us make even the smallest mistakes because, to him, nurses ought to undertake their job with utmost care and accuracy. It was very relieving to see his passion as he spoke. I was inspired to love my job right there and then. I found myself following in his footsteps in pushing the other nurses to make an effort to avoid mistakes. For some reason, he also seemed to tone down his harshness after our conversation.

According to Labrague and McEnroe-Petitte (2017), nursing students tend to opt for positive conflict resolution approaches such as collaboration. I found this approach very effective in dissolving the differences I had with the assistant nursing manager. By collaborating with him to enhance practice, I transformed our relationship into a win-win situation. Looking back at the above conflict scenario, I believe I would still confront the assistant manager the way I did in the first case. However, to improve my conflict management skills, I would first try to know him in person before confronting him. I would try to understand his family background so that I understand the motivations for his behaviour. I realized that deep down he was a very passionate nurse.

Conflict management and leadership effectiveness

Marquis and Huston (2015) observe that collaboration is an assertive approach to conflict resolution. As a leader, I often use collaboration to resolve conflicts. I usually begin by acknowledging that each nurse has good ideas that can enhance patient safety and the quality of care. Conflict is just a product of different values, priorities, and ideas, but it does not negate the fact that those ideas are worth examining. As such, I create forums in which nurses feel free to air their views on how best to manage processes, facilities, and services. This approach to leadership has been effective in enhancing collaborative approach to service delivery in my unit.

Conclusion

Conflicts provide opportunities to renew relationships in an organization. This paper has shown that collaboration helps to dissolve differences and bring about a win-win relationship. Collaboration acknowledges the good intentions that each member of the conflicting parties has. I found the method instrumental in resolving a problem of sour relationship in a nursing context.

 

 

References

Higazee, M. Z. A. (2015). Types and Levels of Conflicts Experienced by Nurses in the Hospital Settings. Health Science Journal, 9(6:7), 1-6.

Labrague, L. J., & McEnroe-Petitte, D. M. (2017). An Integrative Review on Conflict Management Styles among Nursing Students: Implications for Nurse Education. Nurse Education Today, 59, 45-52.

Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2015). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application (8th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.

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Sample Essay #2

Effective Ethical, Moral, and Legal Leadership

Nursing is an enriching career for most nurses. This enrichment comes from both the deeply human experiences both joy and sadness that surround nurses as they care for patients.  However, for this career to be rewarding, the working environment must fulfil certain conditions. These conditions include good pay, well-defined roles, availability of management support, effective workflows, among others. They often result from the nature of leadership in place. Leadership consists mainly of health care decision-making. Some decisions tend to attract moral and ethical questions, also known as ethical dilemmas. These dilemmas are at the heart of nursing leadership.

Nurses encounter these moral dilemmas on a daily basis in the course of their work (Robinson, Lee, Zollfrank, Jurchak, Frost & Grace, 2014). An example of an ethical dilemma is what I experienced while working in a mental rehabilitation centre. A patient who was well on her way to recovery had a scheduled day out to be with her family for a day. She followed the right channels and requested his daily medication to take while she was out. As a nurse, I did not feel comfortable giving the patient full responsibility for her medication. So many things could go wrong. She could end up taking the wrong dosage leading to adverse effects. She could choose to throw the drugs away altogether and thus fail to take her daily dose. She could equally ingest the drugs with the wrong substances like alcohol leading to health risks. On the other hand, the patient had the right to ask for her medication. She also had the right to her day off. I needed to trust that she would do the right thing and still ensure that my decision would not endanger her health. The law and professional duty require that nurses respect the decisions and choices of patients. This respect recognizes the patients as persons with dignity and mental competence to make decisions. I was in an ethical dilemma because whatever decision I made could have resulted in some violation of these legal and professional demands as well as the rights of the patient.

To resolve such ethical dilemmas, nurses require an ethical framework that guides their decision-making processes (Marquis & Huston, 2015). An ethical framework is a system that ensures that it enables moral agents to make all considerations before making decisions. These considerations include the absolute necessity of the decision, the potential legal and health risks, and the consequences of making or failing to make a decision. The framework also provides a system of tracking decisions and establishing accountability.

 

 

References

Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2015). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application (8th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.

Robinson, E. M., Lee, S. M., Zollfrank, A., Jurchak, M., Frost, D., & Grace, P. (2014). Enhancing Moral Agency: Clinical Ethics Residency for Nurses. The Hastings Center Report, 44(5), 12-20.