Negotiation as a management strategy for conflict resolution and its effect on enhancing collaboration between nurses and physicians

Aim The aim was to investigate negotiations as a management strategy for conflict resolution and its effect on enhancing collaboration between nurses and physicians. Background Conflict is the main cause of poor collaboration between nurses and physicians, and negotiation is the best way to resolve conflicts between health care professionals. Participants and methods A mixed-method (quantitative method and qualitative method) design was used in this study. The study was conducted on 222 participants (154 nurses, 56 doctors, and 12 nursing managers) from two Ministry of Health hospitals using four tools: a personal data sheet, Jefferson’s scale of attitude toward nurse–physician collaboration, negotiation style to a conflict resolution questionnaire, and semistructured interviews. Results There was a strong positive correlation between negotiation and collaboration in both nurses and physicians (0.496FNx08 and 0.506FNx08 respectively), besides the support of qualitative data to this result. Regarding collaboration, the nurse mean scores were higher [48.45 (80.7%)] than physician mean scores, whereas in negotiation, physician mean scores were higher [99.86 (80.5%)] than nurse mean scores. Conclusion The qualitative data in this study supported quantitative data. Negotiation helps enhance collaborations between nurses and physicians. Nursing managers must stress that the negotiation to be effective need training and administrative support for the beginners. Regarding the implications for nursing management, managers in managerial positions should conduct training sessions for nurses and young doctors on negotiation skills and techniques and their benefits for collaboration between health care professionals and for healthy work settings.