Graduate support page for a three-part final assignment addressing healthcare conflict, leadership analysis, action planning, and professional email communication.
This final assignment applies leadership and professional communication to a workplace conflict involving two registered nurses and a fall-prevention protocol.
NHS FPX 5004 Final Assignment: Addressing Real-World Healthcare Conflict Through Leadership and Professional Communication
Assigned Topic: Tension between two registered nurses (Mark and Lena) on the execution of a new fall prevention procedure in an inpatient rehabilitation unit.
In this assignment, I will analyze a conflict that took place between two Registered Nurses (RN's) on the unit. As the Assistant Nurse Manager, the goal of this assignment is to look at this situation from a leadership point of view, find a solution for resolving this conflict, and report it to the Nurse Manager. It is critical to settle any conflicts in the health care setting, since the failure to do so may put patients at risk, harm the performance of the group, tire the workers, and even lead to resignation by staff members.
The problem occurred within the inpatient rehabilitation unit where I serve as Assistant Nurse Manager. Mark, RN, and Lena, RN, in this instance, are performing the duties of a fall prevention protocol that require them to conduct patient rounds at every hour and document the process. As Mark alleges, Lena is unable to conduct rounds at every hour but instead records them. According to Lena, Mark conducts rounds but does not record the rounds. In a bid to protect the safety of the patients, both Mark and Lena have written to the nursing administration to complain about each other's failure to adhere to the required protocol.
As a leader, from my point of view, this scenario may be described as an example of accountability between two parties in terms of joint efforts to secure safety of patients. Indeed, there is some rationale behind positions of both parties: inadequate rounds may lead to possible injuries from falls for patients who go through rehabilitation therapy; insufficient documentation negatively affects quality assurance and proper coordination of efforts. Nevertheless, at this point, I should maintain neutrality and gather necessary information – including information on how often patient rounds were done, when documentation was done, shifts, etc. In addition, I should conduct necessary research in terms of recent training on procedures, workload, and feedback on previous efforts made by the staff. As far as effective leadership is concerned, leaders should avoid pointing fingers at others and focus on introducing necessary system changes, be open-minded, and use the opportunity to foster reciprocity norms (González-García et al., 2025).
From an organizational perspective, there is a possibility of insufficient follow-up training concerning the fall prevention protocol that was introduced. Interpersonally, there is a potential issue of inadequate communication while transitioning care responsibilities along with a possible breakdown in relations between Mark and Lena, especially considering the role of the rehabilitation nurse. Systemically, the nurse shortage, the variability in the acuity of patients, and documentation can contribute to the pressure of time and require taking certain shortcuts. These are generated by the fact that usually, in general, when new protocols are not sufficiently supported, along with poor nurse dynamics, conflicts emerge (Nikitara et al., 2024).
Consequently, the negative impact of the aforementioned problem can be noticed due to its adverse impact on the provision of patient care services and safety due to the inconsistency in implementing preventive measures against patient falls, which happen due to the vulnerability of rehabilitation patients who cannot walk independently. Information handovers become barriers to communication and the potential for any interventions. Nursing collaboration and teamwork become impossible because of the low level of trust. Time becomes wasted in resolving conflicts rather than providing nursing care for the patient. Research reveals that patient falls, harm, and medication errors exhibit a positive correlation with nurse burnout, which might stem from conflicts, according to Li et al. (2024).
The objective will be to ensure that there is an efficient execution of the falls prevention plan by maintaining the level of compliance at 95% each month during the audits conducted on rounding, observations, and handoffs. The objective will be achieved due to its alignment with the available managerial powers, quality management strategies, and non-punitive approach in light of the patient safety issues.
The way to tackle this conflict involves making sure that the entire process will be open and transparent. This would involve engaging Mark, Lena, nurses, the Nurse Manager, and any other specialists involved in quality and education, if necessary. Some of the strategies that would be adopted during the conflict resolution include arranging a meeting wherein there would be active listening and objective mediation, group decision making during the reviews of the protocols, and conducting unit huddles using the SBAR method and others. This promotes accountability, transparency, and shared responsibility in collaborative leadership.
The following principles will serve as a foundation for our strategy: human dignity, beneficence and non-maleficence by putting patient safety first, and justice by ensuring that all employees receive equal and fair treatment. Culturally sensitive practices related to different communication styles, ages, generations, experience levels, and equity, such as distributing work evenly among all workers, will be incorporated where appropriate to avoid potential issues such as miscommunication and unconscious bias while investigating any incidents.
The approaches that I am going to adopt are those aimed at collaboration and integration, compromise, and facilitation/mediation. This strategy will entail bringing together Mark and Lena in dialogues guided by patient safety goals while using techniques of active listening and empathy to create arrangements, for example, peer observation and co-audit. The relevance of adopting these approaches can be seen from findings of systematic reviews that show that collaboration and accommodation/integration are the most common and effective strategies used by nurses in conflict management, leading to more integrated team effort and success compared to other strategies like avoidance and competition (Nikitara et al., 2024).
Week 1: Set up individual meetings with Mark and Lena to gather information, resolve any issues, and establish guidelines on how to communicate properly (will take 3-5 days).
Week 1-2: Arrange a mediation meeting for both individuals that will focus on protocol needs and come to a mutual agreement (will take 7-10 days).
Weeks 2-4: Offer a training refresher on the protocol and provide a new resource for delegation of tasks; begin audit on protocol compliance (will take place during Week 2).
Weeks 3–8: Organize peer feedback and daily huddles; perform weekly progress reviews.
Month 3: Conduct an extensive audit; analyze results and make changes based on the data; celebrate successes.
This progress will be tracked using monthly audits of compliance, anonymous feedback from the nursing staff, and direct observation of the rounding process and hand-offs. Changes will be made where appropriate based on information obtained, for example by providing more training in specific areas where a deficit exists or by making changes to workloads where barriers have been identified. Information regarding this process will be regularly communicated to the Nurse Manager, with a three-month review at the end of that period.
Email Subject Line: Suggestions to Address RN Conflict Regarding Fall Prevention Protocol – Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit
I would like to provide you with the summary of the dispute between Mark, RN, and Lena, RN, concerning the new fall prevention protocol, as well as my own leadership approach to address the matter.
According to Mark, Lena does her hourly rounding, but often fails to complete the process. At the same time, according to Lena, Mark completes the roundings but neglects documenting the data. As both nurses made complaints, claiming that there is a risk of harm to patients, a conflict occurred in the rehabilitation unit where this protocol needs to be implemented.
My action plan has a measurable goal where I aim to have 95% compliance rate regarding the protocols within three months through audits. Mediation will be done collaboratively in the form of evidence-based mediation by means of using techniques like dialogue, listening, and problem solving that is integrative in nature. This will be done through education refreshers for the entire unit and the use of handoffs. There is a schedule in which I will start with one-on-one meetings and then with joint meetings in week one.
The complete leadership analysis and plan are provided as an attachment. Please grant me permission to act on this and any other resources that may be needed, such as scheduling assistance for training. I also propose an immediate meeting with you to further discuss the details.
Thank you for your time in considering this issue. I am looking forward to hearing from you.
González-García, A., Pinto-Carral, A., Marqués-Sánchez, P., Quiroga-Sánchez, E., Bermejo-Martínez, D., & Pérez-González, S. (2025). Characteristics of nurse managers’ conflict management competency: A systematic review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 81(4), 1717–1733. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.16600
Li, L. Z., Yang, P., Singer, S. J., Pfeffer, J., Mathur, M. B., & Shanafelt, T. (2024). Nurse burnout and patient safety, satisfaction, and quality of care: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Network Open, 7(11), Article e2443059. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.43059
Nikitara, M., Dimalibot, M. R., Latzourakis, E., & Constantinou, C. S. (2024). Conflict management in nursing: Analyzing styles, strategies, and influencing factors: A systematic review. Nursing Reports, 14(4), 4173–4192. https://doi.org/10.3390/nursrep14040304
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