Organizational Deflection or Who Owns the Real Problem?Debunking the Nurse‐Physician Conflict by Team Building

A third‐party facilitator was engaged to develop a design to resolve conflicts and begin team building between nurses and physicians in a Canadian Community Hospital. Each group met individually and later together to identify perceived problems, but actual discussions focused on administrative and strategic issues adversely affecting both groups concerned with patient care. Rather than focusing on the relationship between each group, discussions dealt with operationalization of the new mission/strategy with the objective of team building. The group sessions resulted in an understanding of administrative manipulation and ensured a stronger collaborative effort for both groups by placing the problem where it really existed, with top administration.