Role Conflict and the Nurse, Part II
An organizational environment that provides open communication and joint problem solving between staff and managers is associated with less role conflict among nurses. Job dissatisfaction and turnover are the primary significant negative organizational outcomes of role conflict. Other negative outcomes include absenteeism, less professional behavior, lack of commitment to the organization, psychological strain, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization toward patients while providing nursing care, stress, and burnout. These negative employee and organizational outcomes provide the basis upon which to develop strategies for reducing role conflict.
Leadership behaviors should provide the following: an organizational environment that supports open discussion of ideas among all levels of staff, articulation of clear goals, visibility and availability to staff, reasonable standards for high performance, and emphasis on team relationships. Support from managers and administrators as well as peers is an effective mediator of role conflict.
Initiating a supportive discussion format for staff in which they are able to meet both informational and emotional needs is an important strategy. This might be implemented through separate meetings or by allowing staff meetings to evolve into a dialogue that not only communicates pertinent information but includes discussions among and with staff regarding their emotional needs. This strategy should also be implemented between managers and staff during one-to-one interactions.
Of great importance is role clarity and feedback regarding job performance expectations and the understanding of reciprocal role expectations of nursing and non-nursing work group members. Sharing job descriptions across disciplines may be an effective strategy that will allow staff to articulate expectations for themselves and others in specific patient care situations.
It appears the real crux of the issue for managers and administrators in reducing role conflict is the need to facilitate team-building across all members of the health care team. Team development exercises play an important role; these exercises might involve role playing, practicing effective communication techniques, and interactive assignments to enhance team work. Certainly, all nurses would benefit from learning team-building strategies in continuing education programs provided by long term care organizations.