Conflicts in Healthcare Organisations

CONFLICT AND TEAM EFFECTIVENESS

INTRODUCTION (SCENARIO)

LOCATION :- MIDDLEMORE HOSPITAL

Middlemore is a tertiary public care hospital which is managed by Counties Manukau Health Board. It provides several kinds of health and social care services. It is 800 bedded hospital with 24 operation theatres. In the hospital different kinds of departments are present. Around 4700 staff members providing their services in all departments. All the staff members are working as a great team. All the departments are interconnected with each other as all are depend on another department’s services e.g. doctor always need help of nursing staff for providing care to the patients as well as radiology, laboratory and physiotherapy departments are also connected in all care facilities which are providing by the hospital. Sometimes team work get affected due to some issues in any workplace which affects on quality of care and on working environment as well.

CONFLICT :- It is the major problem in any workplace which occur in two or more persons. Conflicts in healthcare organisations definitely affect patient care and productivity. It is necessary task for a team leader to identify the reason behind that conflict and to figure out a solution to avoid major consequences in the future. (Ramsey, M. 2001 April).

Rate of happening conflicts in healthcare profession is higher instead of any other profession. (Barr & Dowding, 2016).

Our report is on a conflict which occur between two nurses. In the next paragraphs, I am going to submit a report on the whole problem as well as it’s outcomes.

THE SCENARIO

Conflict starts between day and night staff nurses Lisa (New Zealand resident working since last 2 years) and Tina (newly joined nurse from India) Tina (day staff) was more sincere and experienced than Lisa (night staff). Soon Tina built good IPR (Inter-personal Relationship) with all the staff members as well as doctors. She got some rewards from management because of her caring nature and working skills. On the other hand, Lisa was not good at her work as Tina was, sometimes she behave rudely with the patients. Lisa starts jealousy from Tina because of her respect in the staff and doctors. She always think Tina to make insulted from management and doctors. One night in the shift of Lisa a surgery planned by doctor for next morning but in the next morning while giving charge to Tina she hide the information about surgery and to keep the patient NPO (nil per orally) as ordered by the doctor. Moreover, she did not show the patient’s record to Tina in which the surgery was mentioned by the doctor. Tina serve breakfast to patient because she was unknown about the surgery.

In the morning doctor came to visit the patient and asked to Tina is patient ready for operation theatre. She got shocked and said that I did not know about surgery, I gave breakfast to the patient. Doctor starts shouting to Tina. She explain that night staff did not tell anything to me about the surgery because it was planned in the night and I was just going to check the patient’s record than breakfast came and I serve it to patient. The doctor call the incharge nurse (Rosy) explain about the issue. Incharge feel sorry for this troublesomeness and disobliging work as well as for major issue created by her team.

RESONS FOR CONFLICT

• Jealousy
• Communication gap
• Racism
• Competition
• Misunderstanding
• Disrespecting behaviour

FACTORS AFFECTING WORKPLACE

Conflict between Lisa and Tina increases day by day because of Lisa’s misunderstanding. Many times, it was noticed by incharge also and she warned Lisa several times, but the problem still exist. But today major issue was occur due to misunderstanding and communication gap between her team. These conflicts were going to affect the whole organisation which was not good for patient and the other staff members as well the organisation. Because the workplace environment influence staff satisfaction which is directly co-related to the organisation working environment that affect patient care.

LACK OF COMMUNICATION – When misunderstandings occur team members starts ignoring one another instructions and sometimes rules of organisation as well which definitely decreases the quality of care.

STRESS AND JOB BURNOUT – Lack of co-worker’s co-operation and communication leads to stress which decreases working power resulting in job burnout.

EMPLOYMENT INSECURITY – With the joining of new staff insecurity in the existing staff leads to stress and negative workplace environment.

TEAM ERRORS – Team is the first thing which is disturbed with these kinds of errors and misunderstandings. If the team will not work with co-operation, then many more problems are there to occur.

EFFECTS OF CONFLICTS :-

ON INDIVIDUAL

• Negative emotions
• Stress
• Lack of confidence
• Lack of emotions
• Depression

ON TEAM / ORGANISATION

• Decrease productivity
• Violence among staff members
• Wastage of time
• Less focus on work

ON PATIENT

• Stress
• Insecurity
• Compromised care
• Disturbed sleep pattern

These all problems can disturb the chain of work and decrease the team effectiveness. So, incharge decided to discuss the problem with manager and to clear the misunderstandings of Lisa about Tina. She goes to manager and discuss about the problem and they planned about a team building day which will give time to all the staff members to communicate with each other and give some time to spend without any work load. They planned about some games and activities which were beneficial for a good team work and effectiveness of team. They choose many activities.

ACTIVITIES FOR TEAM EFFECTIVENESS

Team members chose some activities for team effectiveness in which all the group members were participated and they get time to introduce with each other and to understand each other’s behaviour very closely. On the very first stage there was confusion with some team members by doing activities together they form trust on each other and get close, all team members were clear about their roles and objectives which are mainly helpful on their workplace.

Some of the team activities which were done on team building day are:

BLIND FOLDES

NEWS HEADINGSA

MINEHUNT

HUMAN KNOT

BALANCING STICK

AIRLOCK TEAM BUILDING

All activities were helpful for building a great team but we select airlock team building in which all team members were tie with each other from legs and they have to walk through ring without any fall. We select this team activity to play because it shows automatically the dependency of one team member upon another co-worker. If one person does[A1] any mistake it will affect the whole team.

OUTCOMES

The major outcome of this activity was building trust on each other and working by co-operation. It shows that all group members are different from each other, their learning style are different, different personalities and traits are there, but this activity ensure that all team member can achieve any task with trust and co-operation, it must be productive as much as possible. Group activity convey a message of internalize as well as it increases team bonding. The main motto of this game was to appreciate of a team member in his/her achievement or strengths and help in weakness. It substitutes possibility thinking on the place of limited beliefs which relieve stress and increase talent of life balance.

According to Switzler A (2009) some more things will need to be done on schedule.

SCHEDUAL REGULAR TIME TO COMMUNICATE

When poor communication occurs in any group or team there must be a written report of problem, it’s consequences and possible solutions. There will be a weekly or fortnightly meeting to discuss all the problem and their solutions.

IDENTIFY AND SHARE BEHAVIOUR PATTERN

The second main thing to do is to read team member’s behaviour. Behaviours to be identify are working, not working as well as missing behaviours. Involvement of team leader in every task is must.

Obtaining data by survey

Survey should also be involved in weekly meetings. It will help to collect sufficient and correct data to discuss with the group members and will helpful to make the solutions for major issues.

GARNER SUPPORT BY TALKING YOUR COLLEAGUES

The main role of team leader in this task is to solve a problem according to the situation. Never take any action if a single person complaining about another person in the team, first think about the situation and then take any action. But, if there any problem occur to your group you must have to attend it. If the same problem exists with similar frustration, then make a planned solution according to problem.

OUR TEAM

LEARNING STYLES AND PERSONALITY

Team is a group of people who always work together with co-operation and co-ordination. Same we were a team of 4 members with different learning styles and personalities. One from us was a group leader and others follow the instruction of leader to make the team effective to do the task correctly and timely. First member SUKHDEEP KAUR she always learns from auditory style she has entrepreneur personality. Second member, HARSIMRANJIT SINGH also having great auditory learning and having campaigner personality. Third member JASPREET KAUR having console personality and she always learn through visual learning style. Fourth member was RANDEEP KAUR have mediator personality and she learns from visual activities.

Harsimran’s personality relates to the behaviour theory because he changes his behaviour according to situation. For instance, during the discussion in the classroom he easily adopt the new learning. Next member Sukhdeep relates to the cognitive theory because in every task she has great problem solving skills. Randeep and Jaspreet relates to constructive theory, at the time of discussion they both build new ideas from their experience.

TEAM MEMBER’S RECORD

Sukhdeep – She prepare scenario and workplace situation. She is more experienced than other team members. She had lot of ideas about workplace situations, she knows very well how to tackle that problems and to make team effective. She has done the conclusion of report as well.

Harsimranjit – He make the rationale and factors affecting workplace task as well as he made slides. He has great computer skills. He knows very well how to use word and what kind of slides are effective in presentation. He also create the team activity.

Jaspreet – she done the task of team members record. She can easily read the person his personality and style of learning and thinking. She relates theories to the team members in their role in team work.

Randeep – as Randeep is good in visual learning she searched on you tube as well as read course book to relate the theories with the group members in team. She did the 4^th task of assignment about individual and team.

MATRIX

22^nd February 2017, we started our assignment in the classroom. In this period, we discuss about the task and material during the break time.

23^rd February we done some work by own at our homes. Do some research on internet and read some articles about team effectiveness.

24^th February we got together at Sukhdeep’s home for further discussion. All members are very punctual all came on time but that day Harsimranjit got late because his train was cancelled. All team members great at their tasks and participated in every activity enthusiastically.

26^th February all met at Jaspreet’s home, for preparing the slides and to do some role play activity preparation.

In every task, Jaspreet and Randeep’s role was related to Hersey Blanchard Theory. They follow all the instruction given by the group leader and done their work at a great level. Group leader explain them about the assignment that includes what to do, how to do for getting positive outcome. The character of Harsimranjit and Sukhdeep was related to transformational theory. While doing the task they motivated all group for concentration and great result.

CONCLUSION

At last, the whole report says about the conflict within the team members, it’s solutions as well as the team effectiveness. After doing all the task and activities we realise that a team can work effectively. If the team members are sincere about their role in the team. Bad behaviour of the team members can destroy the team and organisation. on the other hand, co-operative team can increase the productivity of care.

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