Conflicts will emerge among minority groups and their varied worldviews. The little research done on nurses behaviors around conflict demonstrates that their preferred conflict response is avoidance. The second and third preferred responses to conflict are accommodation and compromise. The 90 s taught us that the inability or refusal to negotiate can mean that we fail to meet our own standards and may endanger patients. Downsizing health care during the 90 s taught us that short-term savings led to high cost outcomes for our patients.
Nurses have a perspective that no other health care group has.
If we hope to create a safer, more healing health care environment, we will need to negotiate this for nursing and for the patients we care for. The nursing shortage will increase pressure on organizations to create work environments that attract nurses and decrease employee attrition. Unresolved conflict persists as a major factor in toxic work environments. Waiting until the conflict leads to harm and loss does not make sense. Those organizations with effective nurse negotiators will experience less shortage trauma, because nurses will elect to work in these environments when they compare them to those failing in this challenge.