Collaboration Between Nurses and Other Professionals

In the field of nursing, it is crucial to know the art of conflict handling as conflicts are a common occurrence in the workplace. These conflicts tend to arise while providing care to the patient or while being the patient’s advocate. While a number of conflicts are sorted out easily, others consume a lot of time and energy, thus derailing what could be the focus on the patient. Patient care tends to be altered by prolonged conflicts, thus causing harm or neglecting care to the patient.

In the event of rising conflict, we as nurses always have to handle the situation such that it doesn’t become uncontrollable. Allowing the conflict to continue existing increases the severity of the effects. According to Khalid & Fatima (2016), nurses and other health operatives are likely to experience conflict. They always encounter pressures and, at the same time, tasked with providing excellent care to the patients (Khalid & Fatima, 2016). Mostly, conflicts emerge from the alterations occurring within the facility’s departments.

An illustration of a conflict that I have experienced in my professional life in the department I am working with is that, certain patients are missing the mandatory chlorhexidine baths. Individuals who have undergone the spine surgery or having Foley catheters need to take chlorhexidine baths, to avert potential contaminations. The administration of the baths has been given to the certified nursing assistants, and it is a problem that we have battled with for months. There have been conversations on the importance of these baths at the department, and in every shift start, I have approached the certified nursing assistants (CNAs) and informed them on the patients in need of the baths.

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However, I need to always be with the certified nursing assistant in order for the tasks to be successfully completed. At a certain time, I remember the CNA telling me she has completed bathing the patients, or the patient has objected to taking a bath. This being a task that has been delegated, I have always followed up to ensure that the tasks are well completed. However, when speaking to the patients, they stated that they were not told about taking the bath. This situation thus escalates the conflict at hand concerning these baths. According to Finkelman, he asserts an appropriate solution to the conflict is reached when there is a good understanding of what causes the conflict despite some conflicts having numerous causes (Finkelman, 2016). Having to consistently deal with this conflict at hand and not being addressed, it is evident that it is far from being resolved.

The conflict we have at the moment can be termed as a manifest conflict since the staff is aware of their being a problem, but there is a consistent ignorance of the policy. According to Finkelman (2016), a conflict has four distinct stages, and these include latent, perceived, felt & manifest. Starting with the latent stage, it refers to the anticipation of the beginning of a conflict. It is appropriate when a conflict is confronted at this stage as it can be prevented from intensifying. The perceived conflict stage is where the individuals are aware of the issue causing the conflict, and it can be easily worked on to solve the conflict. On the other hand, the felt stage is where we begin to have emotional attachments towards the conflict, and the emotions manifest themselves as anxiety or anger (Finkelman, 2016). These emotional attachments can significantly hamper the conflict resolution process. The last stage is the manifest conflict, which is a very disastrous stage that can result in harm or destruction. It is unfortunate that this is the exact stage in which our conflict concerning the CNAs and the baths is currently in.

As a means to diffuse the tension caused by this conflict, we have now approached the patient baths and provision of care in a changed manner. We currently make physical rounds with the CNAs instead of telling them which patients need the baths. These physical rounds have given us the chance to establish a care plan for the patients. This not only makes the patients have an understanding of the importance of the baths but ensures that they get them too as required. This step has further ensured that the CNAs become fully aware of the tasks they have in a shift. According to Beggs, Jernigan & Kohut (2016), nurses are key individuals always leading in health care issues and are viewed as the connection between the healthcare facility and the patients (Jernigan, Beggs, & Kohut, 2016). The fact that nurses always handle the patients is vital for them to be get involved in the daily practices of the facility as well as input their views on issues related to patient care. With duty assigning being part of the nursing practice, it is true that we can face many conflicts; thus, it is vital to use skills in approaching the issues in a correct manner to ensure that the patients are safe. Although, at times, we don’t agree on how some things need to be carried out, there is a need to learn how to listen to one another, thus coming up with appropriate solutions.

In the wake of this problem at hand, collaboration is one approach that can help in the provision of appropriate care to the patients. We, as nurses, need to have a common aim and provide appropriate care to patients. There is a need to collaborate with other professionals, thus creating a multidisciplinary strategy essential for patients’ care. Collaboration is vital in utilizing the distinct skills and knowledge of every individual. For instance, in our case, the nurses need to offer the physicians vital knowledge on the status of the patients. That said, a patient developing an infection due to lack of the chlorhexidine baths is a result of the nurses’ neglect. These infections can result in long hospital stays and increased costs due to the longer hospital stays.

It is thus my utmost belief that there is a necessity to collaborate with nurse leaders and managers to have a smoothly running unit. Operating in the critical care environment, it is evident that we look at some patients who suffer from life-threatening illnesses. As nurses making things worse for the patients should be even in our thoughts. The fact that at likely to be faced with ethical dilemmas calls for the necessity to always collaborate with our nurse managers or leaders.

At the current moment, I am on a night shift, and thus most of the time, I am unable to have personal contact with the nurse leader. However, with the existing issues at hand, I find it essential to maintain a connection with the nurse leader by e-mail communication. The fact that she is open communication has made me contact her at any time if I feel there is an issue that needs immediate attention. With the issue of chlorhexidine baths, I have made more contacts with the nurse manager through phone calls as well as text messaging. This communication has resulted in a positive outcome as it has helped to talk about the things affecting the department.

Through these talks, we have been able to come up with a solution to utilizing bedside shift reports given by the CNA’s. It just came out as a suggestion when we were talking in one fine morning. I happened to mention the issue of bedside shifts report with the CNA’s, and she believed that it was a perfect idea. We thus discussed it with other staff so as to access their standpoint. In a week, we began using this suggestion in every shift, and it is evident that the issues which we’re bringing out conflicts have significantly reduced.

In a nutshell, despite the positions we hold, there is a need to handle conflicts in one way or the other. As a nurse, confidence is essential to handle the situation or have an understanding of the appropriate channels that can help handle the conflict. The objective is always the same, which is to offer quality care to the patients we handle. As mentioned earlier, allowing conflict to continue staying in our midst is the more danger it poses to us.