Nursing Students' Perception of Conflict Management Styles of their Nursing Educators

Abstract

Background: The interactive nature of the teaching process is built on a social relationship between teachers and students. Conflicts in the relationship between students and teachers may occur for a several reasons. Effective and constructive management of conflict can decrease its negative effects on the learning environment, students, and educators. Purpose: This study aims to investigate nursing students' perception of conflict management styles of their nursing educators. Methodology: The study was conducted in Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University. 475 nursing students enrolled in the four academic years of the faculty were participated in the current study. Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory–II (ROCI–II) used in this study to determine conflict management styles nursing educators use to handle conflict with students as perceived by students. Results: Nursing students perceived that Avoiding was the most frequently style used by their nursing educators for conflict management. While, Integrating style was the lowest one. Other variables could influence their perception of conflict management styles such as sex, class year, frequency of experiencing conflict, and status of feeling successful in conflict management. Recommendation: The findings highlighted the importance of providing appropriate training programs for conflict management and resolution periodically to nursing educators in order to teach them how to deal with student’ conflict more effectively. Nurse educators should utilize strategies like communicating respect, clarifying course goals, involving students in solving problems, and encouraging a sense of clinical and classroom community  which could be helpful in managing conflict successfully.

Keywords: Conflict management style, nursing educators, student - teacher conflict, ROCI-II