Conflict Management (Patient, Perioperative Team, Family)

Guidelines:

• “On stage”
• Observations, not accusations
• De-escalation
• Identify need, not flaw
• Be direct with inappropriateness

Considerations:

• Safety of team
  • throwing instruments= bad bad
• Active participation in problem solving
• recognize when help is needed
• Empathy
• Break the chain
• Avoid appeal to authority

Nurse’s role:

• Maintain professional environment
• Facilitate interdisciplinary conversations
• Patient interviews
• After-action, incident reporting
• Active reduction of conflict intraop

Pitfalls:

• Emotions
• No fault incidences
  • Looking for blame where there is none
• Passive aggressive behavior
• Indirect address of inappropriate behavior

Examples:

• Gensurg difficulty with endoloop, swears this isn’t“my loop”(Clarify need, offer alternatives, avoid appeal, same team)
• Patient upset regarding NPO status (empathy, mirroring, observations not accusations, education)

Linchpins (Key Points):

• The OR RN is positioned to provide calming presence and matter-of-fact assistance in the OR to accomplish safe patient care