Nursing care role conflict: A concept analysis by Walker and Avant method

 The need for the constant presence of nurses in patient care and the non-cooperation of other care providers has made the conflict in the defined roles an inevitable issue in the nurseschr('39') daily care activities. This study aimed to analyze and define the concept of nursing care role conflict and determine its causes and consequences.

This concept analysis study was conducted with detailed research on databases, including SID, Iranmedex, MEDLIB-ED, PubMed, Scopus, Medline, Embase, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. The English and Persian articles published within 2010-2020 were included and the search process was performed with the following keywords: "Care role conflict", "Role conflict", "Nurses", and "Nurse". The review of the titles and content of articles was based on inclusion criteria. Data analysis was performed using the Walker and Avantchr('39')s 8-Step Method.

Numerous factors, such as inequality in the distribution of financial rewards, high workload, inappropriate management systems, and lack of specified job description, are among the effective factors leading to the creation of nursing care role conflict. Various concepts were used rather than nursing care role conflict, among which included role ambiguity, unclear goals, role insecurity, uncertain expectations, misinterpretation confusion, exhaustion, and job stress, as well as lack of clarity and planning.

It was revealed that the lack of clarity in job descriptions was the main cause of the nursing care role conflict. Moreover, the supportive and protective nursing roles were effective in the creation of nursing care role conflict.