As I was reading the scenario I was unclear what Sherry actually wanted James to do. Sherry, as the charge nurse, is the authority and is in the position of power. Power is the utilization of influence over another to have them act or produce in a certain manner (Huber, 2014). When in the position of power, it is necessary for the charge nurse to effectively communicate to James what she needs him to do. Is he to prepare the patient for surgery or just get a form? In this case it almost appears as though Sherry I utilizing bully tactics on James. Sherry, unaware or not, is delegating a task to James under a cloud of conflict. Conflict is the any behavior or action that undermines safety (Huber, 2014). When James attempts to verbalize to Sherry that he has never prepared a patient for surgery like this Sherry needed to question herself what James interpreted that he was to do. In addition, the patient was not talking to her nurse. We cannot determine if this is a change of baseline, if James had attempted to communicate with her, or if others were able to communicate with the patient. If James had communicated that to Sherry, perhaps the scenario would be different. If Sherry first reviewed the five steps of delegation she would have realized that what she wanted James to do is different than what James thought he was to supposed to do, that James had a lack of knowledge to complete the …show more content…
Obviously the best approach is harmony and effective communication from the beginning, but if an intrapersonal conflict arises, then conflict management needs to occur. James is responsible to the highest extent of his licensure, so although a task may be delegated to him, he still is accountable. James does need clarification as to what he needs to do, but more importantly he needs to directly communicate to Sherry that the patient will not talk to him and ask for guidance or assistance. By asking for additional guidance it appears that he values her opinion and not refusing work. He can offer to trade patients or tasks to ensure the patient is comfortable with the situation. If she agrees to trade assignments he must take the initiate to talk to Sherry about the protocol for surgery’s and what he needs to do for others in the future. Regardless, James needs to open the line of communication and verbalize to Sherry what he needs from her or simply ask her how he can improve as a nurse. If both parties are equally at fault for the conflict and neither can come up with a respectable solution perhaps they need to have a third party sit down and assist in the relationship. By having effective communication, mutual respect and adhering to the five rights of delegation the issues James, Sherry and the patient would not have occurred and a lot of wasted energy