Undergraduate Research at FIU (URFIU) Conference

Impact of Source Specific Conflict on Nurses’ Safe Work Performance

FIU Wellness & Recreation Center

Nurses work in highly stressful and socially complex work environments in which conflicts from various sources may arise. Conflict is perceived to be one of the most distinguished causes of social stress in the workplace spanning across various occupations and has an influence on employee behaviors (Bruk-Lee & Spector, 2012). The purpose of this study is to look at the associations between different sources of conflict including conflict with physicians, nurse supervisors, and nurse co-workers with nurses safety performance, safety compliance and safety participation. Using a cross-sectional design, data from 146 nurses was collected in which participants were administered a 20-minute online questionnaire. Variables tested in this study were measured using the Safety Climate and Safety Performance Scale (Griffin & Neal, 2008) and Nurse Stress Scale (Gray-Toft & Anderson, 1981). It is predicted that conflict with physicians will be more negatively correlated with the study’s key outcomes than conflict with nurse supervisors and nurse co-workers. As research by Guidroz, Wang, and Perez (2012) found there is a more significant correlation between conflict with physicians in relation to emotion exhaust, compared to other conflict sources seeing as conflict with physicians may pose excessive job demands leading to workplace stressors resulting in negative outcomes experienced by nurses. Although past literature has looked at the associations between source of conflict and performance outcomes in the workplace, no literature has looked specifically at the differential effects source of conflict has on nurses safety performance outcomes measured in the context of a healthcare organization. This current study may be able to help guide workplace interventions to reduce negative safety performance outcomes in tandem with source-specific conflict.