An integrative review on conflict management styles among nursing students: Implications for nurse education

Abstract

Objectives: Nurse education plays a critical role in the achievement of conflict management skills in nursing students. However, a wider perspective on this concept has not been explored. This paper is a report of a review appraising and synthesizing existing empirical studies describing conflict management styles among nursing students.

Design: An integrative review method guided this review.

Data sources: Five (5) bibliographic databases (CINAHL, Medline, Psych Info, Embase and SCOPUS) were searched to locate relevant articles.

Review methods: An electronic database search was performed in December 2016 to locate studies published from 2007 onwards. The search words included: 'conflict', 'management resolution', 'management style', 'management strategy', 'nursing', 'student'. Thirteen (13) articles met the inclusion criteria.

Results: Nursing students preferred 'constructive/positive conflict management styles' when handling conflicts. However, more studies are needed to identify factors that may affect their choice of styles. Further, this review emphasizes the need for empirical studies to identify appropriate interventions that would effectively enhance nursing students' skills in managing conflicts using rigorous methods.

Conclusions: Nursing faculty play a critical role in teaching, training, and modeling constructive conflict resolution styles in nursing students. Simulation scenarios, reflective exercises, and role playing may be useful to facilitate such learning in choosing constructive conflict management styles. Structured training programme on conflict management will assist nursing students develop positive conflict management styles.

Keywords: Conflict; Management resolution; Management strategy; Management style; Nursing; Student.