Conflict on the treatment floor: an investigation of interpersonal conflict experienced by nurses

Abstract

Nurse conflict has numerous detrimental outcomes for healthcare organisations, patients and nurses themselves. Although past literature has advanced general understanding of conflict and aggression, much of it is limited in its explanation of negative interactions between nurses themselves. To address this, we used a mixed-method approach to identify and describe characteristics of conflict between nurses using content analysis of qualitative descriptions and associated quantitative ratings from practicing registered nurses over 12 weeks of a weekly work experience survey administered online. We found six reliable themes describing the nature of nurse conflict including such characteristics as feeling unfairly treated, others’ irresponsible behaviours and work disagreement. Conflicts containing perceived unfair treatment as well as negative emotion and rude behaviour between nurses were rated very negatively. Results suggest that a comprehensive workplace conflict prevention strategy should include multiple types of policies tailored to address each aspect of nurse conflict. Our findings reinforce the idea that healthcare organisations seeking to reduce nurse conflict should pay attention to promoting fair and courteous treatment among nurses as well as adopt policies to improve features of the work environment such as staffing and training.