Discord Between Two Nurses Cathy Black and Barb Evans

Question

Case Study

The three hospital in the city of Manfred merged into one large health center two years ago under the direction of CEO Kevin Smith. There was much resistance to the amalgamation and to the new organizational structure of program management. However, the change completed on schedule Mark Parker was pleased to be appointed manager of two units called the chronic care unit and the rehabilitation unit. Staff on these two new units came each of the three previous sites. On these units, Mark introduced primary care nursing as a new approach to providing client care from the previous model of total patient care. There were only a few staff members who were reluctant to abandon a total patient care approach to client care. At the present time each of the chronic care and the rehabilitation units haves their own dedicated nurses, physiotherapists, social workers, and pharmacy staff but Mark plans to eventually have them cross-trained to work in both units. Elizabeth Hughes is the program director of medical services, and Mark’s immediate administrator. She recently approached Mark with the idea of converting four of the unused beds on the 66 bed chronic care unit to establish a small palliative care unit. Elizabeth has already gained the support of her boss, Danielle Byers, the vice president of patient services, who in turn has received endorsement for the project from the rest of the administrative team.

Adding to Mark’s workload is the increasing discord between the two senior registered nurses, Cathy Black and Barb Evans, who often are assigned to work as charge nurses in the two units. Clients and their families, physicians, and staff have begun to align with one or the other of these two nurses resulting in compromised client care and a tense working environment.

• List and explain two (2) types of power that each of these two nurses might be exerting.
• Apply the basic rules on how to mediate a conflict to describe how Mark can address this problem.

Summary

This question belongs to nursing and discusses about three hospitals in the city of Manfred merged into one large health centre.

Word count: 181