Inter-group conflicts experienced by Iranian nurses: A qualitative study

Introduction: Conflict among nurses has been identified as a significant issue within healthcare settings all around the world. Nurses confront with different types of interpersonal conflicts in their work. It's important to know causes and effects of conflicts in nursing units before deciding to manage them. Aim: describing the experiential aspects of nurses' inter group conflicts focused on causes and effects. Methods: Unstructured and in-depth interviews were conducted according to the grounded theory method. Data were transcribed, coded and categorized in order to generate conceptual categories using constant comparative method. Results: 310 codes extracted from 18 interviews resulted in a model describing the nature and causes of inter group conflicts within nursing: Extra and intra organizational elements with personal and environmental characteristics provide the instincts for creating the conditions which lead to inter group conflicts. Discussion: According to findings context and work place atmosphere must be consider before any try to manage inter group conflicts properly.