| Course | NR 447 Collaborative Leadership in Healthcare |
|---|---|
| Week | 3 |
| Paper type | Conflict analysis paper |
| Length | About 1,180 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | RN-to-BSN |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NR 447 Week 3
A Bed Alarm, a Travel Nurse and a Family Fifteen Feet Away: A Conflict Analysis From a Charge Shift
Student Name
College of Nursing, Chamberlain University
NR 447: Collaborative Leadership in Healthcare
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
A Bed Alarm, a Travel Nurse and a Family Fifteen Feet Away: A Conflict Analysis From a Charge Shift
The Episode, Timed
At 1412 on a Thursday, while I was charge nurse on a 34-bed medical-surgical unit, the bed alarm for a patient in room 9 was found turned off. The patient was an 84-year-old man with dementia, two days into an admission for a hip fracture that had been repaired, on high fall risk precautions with an order for the alarm to be on at all times. I found it off because he was sitting on the edge of his bed trying to stand, and I heard him through the open door as I walked past. I sat him back, turned the alarm on and checked him; he was not hurt.
His nurse was a travel nurse in her second week on our unit, with many years of experience elsewhere. At 1415 I found her at the nurses' station, charting, with the patient's daughter and son-in-law standing about fifteen feet away at the family lounge door, waiting to ask a question. I said, in a normal speaking voice, the alarm in 9 was off and he was halfway out of bed; it has to be on, it's in the order. She answered, louder than I had spoken, that she had turned it off for five minutes while she changed his linen and must have missed switching it back, and that she did not need to be told how to keep a patient safe. The daughter turned to look at us. The exchange lasted less than a minute.
My Account
In my version, I did what a charge nurse should do. A patient at high risk of falling was found attempting to stand with his alarm off, and I had to make sure it did not happen again that afternoon. I spoke calmly and stated a fact and the order. She reacted defensively, raised her voice and did so in front of a family, which is not how our unit speaks to each other. I also knew, though I did not say it, that the alarm had been found off in room 9 once before that week on her shift.
Her Account, at Full Strength
In her version, the alarm was off for a legitimate reason, a linen change, and she forgot to switch it back during an afternoon with six patients, two of them on insulin drips. The patient was not hurt. A charge nurse she had known for eight days corrected her at the central desk, where every nurse and a family could hear, without first asking what had happened. As a travel nurse, she knows that she is watched more closely than staff nurses and that a reputation for being unsafe can end a contract early. Being corrected in public, on a lapse that any nurse could make, felt like being marked as the outsider who cannot be trusted. Her raised voice was not a refusal to take the correction; it was a response to where and how it was delivered. This account is defensible. Nothing in it excuses the alarm being off, but most of it is true.
The Decision Under Examination: Audience and Timing
The correction itself was necessary. What was not necessary was making it at 1415, at the central desk, with a family watching. The patient was already safe; I had turned the alarm on and checked him three minutes earlier. Nothing about his safety required the conversation to happen in that place at that moment. I could have asked her to step into the supply room, a door away, and had the same conversation in thirty seconds with no audience. The setting was the one variable I controlled completely, and I chose the most public option available without thinking about it.
In the terms of the Thomas-Kilmann conflict modes, which describe conflict behavior along assertiveness and cooperativeness (Thomas & Kilmann, 1974), I opened in a competing mode: assertive and uncooperative, stating the rule without asking what had happened. Competing is appropriate when quick, decisive action is vital, and it was, for the patient in the room. By the time I reached the desk, the vital action was done, and the situation called for collaborating, finding out what went wrong so it did not happen again. I used the right mode for the first three minutes and kept using it after the situation had changed. The family's reaction also mattered. A daughter who sees two nurses argue about her father's safety alarm now has a reason to doubt his care, which is a harm to the patient's family that my timing created.
My Own Contribution
Three things I brought made the conflict worse. The first was tone carried in from the room: I had just seen a confused man nearly fall, and some of that alarm was still in my voice. The second was an assumption. Because the alarm had been off once before on her shift, I assumed carelessness before I asked, and that assumption shaped my first sentence. The third was the setting, discussed above. None of these changes the fact that the alarm had to be on. All of them changed whether she could hear the correction. The Joint Commission (2008) has warned that behaviors perceived as intimidating erode a unit's culture of safety by making staff less willing to speak up, and a public correction delivered to a nurse in her second week can be perceived that way even when it is accurate and calmly worded.
A Resolution Inside the Shift
At 1430, after the family's question was answered, I asked her to step into the supply room. I said that I should not have raised the alarm at the desk with a family there, and that I was sorry for that. I asked what had happened, and she told me about the linen change and the insulin drips. I asked what would help her remember the alarm after care, and she suggested that she say alarm on aloud before leaving the room, a habit she had used at her last hospital. We agreed that she would do that and that I would check room 9 at 1530 and 1700 as part of my rounds, not as a check on her but because the patient had tried to stand once already. She said she would also let me know if her workload with the drips became too much. The alarm was on at both checks, and we worked the rest of the shift without further trouble. Marquis and Huston (2021) advise that corrective conversations take place in private and begin with the other person's account of what happened, and the supply room conversation did both in a way the desk conversation could not.
References
Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2021). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application (10th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
The Joint Commission. (2008). Behaviors that undermine a culture of safety (Sentinel Event Alert No. 40). https://www.jointcommission.org/resources/sentinel-event/sentinel-event-alert-newsletters/
Thomas, K. W., & Kilmann, R. H. (1974). Thomas-Kilmann conflict mode instrument. Xicom.
Reading the NR 447 Week 3 instructions
The Week 3 analysis has you examine a conflict in your workplace and how it was handled. Graders look for a description of the conflict, the perspectives of each party, a conflict resolution model, your own role, the outcome or resolution and APA. Anchor the trigger to the minute and describe the setting, including who could see or hear. Write your account, then the other person's at full strength, so it holds up on the page. Treat the place and moment of your response as a decision you made. Use a conflict model to explain why a mode that fit the first minute did not fit what followed. Name your own contribution honestly. Resolve within the shift if possible.
How the NR 447 Week 3 example is put together
The first section times the alarm finding and the correction at the desk, with the daughter fifteen feet away. The writer's account explains why a high fall risk patient found standing with the alarm off demanded action. The travel nurse's account explains a legitimate linen change, six patients and two insulin drips, and the pressure of being new to the unit. The decision section separates the necessary correction from the unnecessary audience and timing, since the patient was already safe, and uses Thomas and Kilmann to describe opening in a competing mode. The contribution section lists tone carried in from the room and two other factors. The resolution section describes the 1430 apology, the "alarm on" habit and checks at 1530 and 1700.
NR 447 Week 3 rubric: what full points look like
Conflict analysis rubrics generally reward a clear description, balanced perspectives, correct use of a conflict model, honest analysis of the writer's role, a constructive resolution and APA. Graders look hardest at whether both sides get a fair hearing; this paper writes the travel nurse's account so it holds up on its own. The description is credited for times and setting. The model scores because the Thomas-Kilmann modes explain a shift in fit rather than labeling the writer. The writer's role earns points through three named contributions, including tone. Resolution is credited for an apology, an agreed habit and timed checks within the same shift. The Joint Commission's alert on behaviors that undermine safety and Marquis and Huston support the analysis.
NR 447 Week 3 help: mistakes that cost points
The costliest paper is a disagreement with nothing to disagree about, where one side was simply wrong and the writing proves it. Another loss is a scenario with no times or setting, so the reader cannot judge whether the response fit. Students also describe the model without applying it, leave out their own part or end with a policy change instead of a resolution between two people. Conflicts with a physician or manager work if you can describe both sides fairly. The conflict does not have to end neatly, but say where it stands. If you have a conflict from your own unit, describe both sides and an NR 447 analysis can be built around timing and audience.
Get a NR 447 Week 3 example written to your instructions
Send the prompt, the scenario if one was supplied, and whatever framework the week asks you to apply, and we will write a custom NR 447 conflict analysis against those exact requirements. It reaches you inside 24-48h, the first one is free, and it is written for your section rather than adapted from something else.
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NR 447 Week 3 questions, answered
Can I write about a conflict with a physician or my manager?
Yes, and disagreements across a hierarchy often produce the better paper, because the limits on what the writer could do are obvious from the start. Keep the analysis on behavior and setting rather than on rank. Remove anything that identifies the individual, the unit or the employer, since these papers are read by faculty who have no need for that detail.
Does the conflict have to be resolved?
No, and unresolved episodes frequently score better. What the rubric usually wants is an accurate account of where things stood at the end of the shift, including a stalemate, plus a defensible reading of why. A paper that manufactures agreement in its final paragraph reads as fiction to any grader who has worked a floor, and it removes the analysis.
How much of the framework has to appear?
Enough that a reader can see it being used, which is usually less text than students expect. Two or three sentences applying a mode or a stage to the writer's own conduct beats a page defining every category in the model. If your section names a specific framework, use that one, and cite it where the posted instructions ask for citations.
Where can I find a free NR 447 Week 3 sample paper?
The complete Week 3 conflict analysis of the bed alarm episode, with both accounts, the audience and timing decision, the Thomas-Kilmann modes, the writer's contribution, the resolution and three references, can be read here.
How is the conflict resolved in the NR 447 Week 3 paper?
At 1430 the charge nurse apologizes privately for raising it at the desk, the travel nurse suggests saying "alarm on" aloud before leaving a room, and the charge nurse checks room 9 at 1530 and 1700.