The conflict management style of intensive care nurses

The conflict management style most commonly encountered in the sample of full-time female intensive care nurses was avoidance, suggesting that staff are unlikely to be assertive, and will try to distance themselves from the source of dispute.

Abstract

Much has been written about the causes of conflict in hospitals, however, little is known of how nurses deal with this conflict in the workplace. Few studies have examined the conflict management strategies used by nurse although such knowledge may suggest says to avoid this potentially disruptive phenomenon. In this research, 64 full-time female intensive care nurses were studied to determine the most commonly used conflict management stuyle in the workplace. An attempt was made to predict the predominant sample conflict management style from a knowledge of a nurse age, years qualified as a nurse, ethnicity and educational background. Also, the same variables were used to determine an individual's conflict management style. The conflict management style most commonly encountered in the sample was avoidance. This suggests that staff are unlikely to be assertive, and will try to distance themselves from the source of dispute. The predominant conflict management style of the sample (avoidance) could not however be accurately predicted from a knowledge of the above variables, nor could they be used to determine an individual's predominant conflict management style.