The Experiences of Registered Nurses Working as a Head of Emergency and Forensic Department in Conflict Management of Health Services at a Community Hospital in the Southern Thailand

Abstract

This qualitative research was a type of critical incidents which was aimed to study the experiences of registered nurses who work as the head of the emergency and forensic department in conflict management in health service at a community hospital in the Southern Thailand. The critical incidents analysis was used as a technique of this research. There were ten registered nurses who gave the information regarding thirty important situations. The data were collected by an in-depth interview and the time spent for the interview of each person was 45-65 minutes. The in-depth interview protocol was reviewed by three experts to ensure about the content validity. The data were analyzed by grouping and categorizing from thirty incidents of conflicts in emergency department. The results were found that the most common conflict incidents were occurred during the afternoon shift. They were; 1) The long duration of waiting period for service recipients. 2) The inappropriate behaviors of the healthcare personnel as the service providers. 3) The service recipients would sue the hospital. The conflict solutions solved by the head of the emergency and forensic department were; 1) Implementing an impartial process of negotiation with service recipients. 2) Responding to all major conflict events immediately. 3) Directing different professional teams to negotiate in order to cease the problems. Most of the conflict management results were successfully unwound and could be led to the improvement of service system to be more efficient in the future.