Maybe it’s the whiny colleague who makes your 12-hour nursing shift seem twice as long or the turf war raging between the nurses, physicians and technicians in your department. Or maybe you’re just tired of feeling overworked and underappreciated. Whatever the scenario, you sense that changes are needed before you lose your sanity or start looking for another nursing job.

Whether you want to improve morale in your department or resolve a conflict with another nurse, your success in doing so will largely depend on how skillfully you bring up difficult issues with your supervisor and how well you guide that conversation in a productive direction.

“When there’s a problem at work, I meet with my supervisor and discuss all of the pertinent facts,” says Kathy Sommese, a nurse supervisor with Kaiser Permanente in Oakland. “I approach our discussion with a collaborative attitude, without being hostile or demanding, and I offer solutions on how I think the problem can be resolved.”

As a supervisor, Sommese also appreciates it when her employees attempt to resolve problems on their own.

“If a nurse is having a conflict with a coworker, I encourage them to sit down together and talk openly about what’s bothering them rather than acting out their unhappiness,” she says. “If they've tried to work it out without success, it’s time for me to intervene.”

Build a Mutual Support Base

“Nursing is stressful,” adds June Fabre, RNC, MBA, author of Smart Nursing. “We often have too much work, too little control over that work and not enough help from each other. Abundant mutual support can help to resolve all of these problems.”

Fabre worked on a high-performance nursing team with her colleagues for more than five years and encourages other nurses to create a similar environment in their workplace.

“Our high-performance team included all the staff, not just nurses,” she says. “We helped each other during busy times, used humor to decrease stress, created a relaxed working environment and a positive atmosphere with a strictly enforced ‘we do not tolerate rudeness’ motto.”

If you’re looking to resolve some difficult issues in your own workplace, Fabre encourages nurses to:

• Brainstorm with peers to find solutions, create a better working environment and bring issues to your supervisor as a group.
• Become a master communicator. “If you’re articulate and self-confident, you wield more influence when making requests,” Fabre says. Feel a little rusty in these areas? Consider taking a public speaking or writing course.
• Designate a peer mediator within your unit or department. A mediator can control the process and ensure everyone involved behaves respectfully toward each other when discussion of a conflict or other difficult issue is under way. Peer mediation is voluntary and confidential, which makes the approach successful.

Draw Power from the Positive

Resolving thorny workplace issues will also be much easier if you work in a positive organizational structure. Feel as if you aren’t being appreciated or that understaffing is making your colleagues especially cranky? “Think about the last time you gave another staff member a pat on the back,” Fabre says. “If we don’t support each other as nurses, who will?”

Fabre says the basic ways to create a positive organizational culture are to:

• Be a role model for others. Support effort as well as success.
• Give encouragement when someone tackles a difficult assignment.
• Increase your own self-respect.
• Adopt an attitude of abundance. “Sometimes a staff member will undermine another person to accomplish his or her own goals,” Fabre says. “This isn’t necessary. Instead, foster a win-win attitude in your department.”
• Ask your supervisor if you can devote a portion of each staff meeting to talking about what’s working in your unit and what isn’t. Give people a chance to express their concerns in a nonconfrontational manner and brainstorm solutions as a group.
• Learn to negotiate. If you’re approaching your supervisor to discuss a more flexible work schedule, for example, come to the meeting prepared. Do some research on your own (such as by checking with your local nurses association or hospitals) to help you build a case for restructuring your job to fit a more flexible schedule.