Assessment of conflict management skills of nurse tutors in basic schools of nursing in Enugu State, Nigeria

Introduction: Conflicts abound in basic schools of nursing with consequences such as strained relationships among staff, collapsed agreement, poor academic performances, and disruption of planned academic activities. Conflicts can, however, be beneficial when well managed. Aim: This study aims at assessing the conflict management skills of nurse tutors in Enugu State Basic Schools of Nursing. Research Design: A prospective survey research method was adopted. Materials and Methods: Fifty nurse tutors in three Basic Schools of Nursing in Enugu State were studied from June to December, 2015. Modified Thomas Kilman's generated questionnaire was used for data collection. It has 46 items in two sections – Section A, on demographic data, consisting mainly of close-ended questions with few open-ended questions and Section B, formatted on a 6-point Likert scale of 1–6, containing questions to determine conflict management skills of nurse tutors. Convenient sampling technique was used for data collection. Data Analysis: Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20.0 was used to analyze data. t-test and analysis of variance test were used to test the set hypotheses. Results: The mean scores for the various parameters were as follows: stress management skill (4.74 ± 0.666), social skills (5.10 ± 0.54), avoidance skills (3.99 ± 0.101), collaborative skills (4.5 ± 0.50), and competing skill (4.10 ± 0.69). Gender and cadre had no statistically significant influence on the conflict management skills of nurse tutors (P = 0.33). Conclusion: Nurse tutors in Enugu State Basic Schools of Nursing possessed good conflict management skills.