Untersuchung des Konfliktpotentials zwischen akademisch ausgebildeten Pflegepersonen und ihren Kollegen im Arbeitsalltag in Österreich

The nurses‘education in Austria is being renewed and brought to a level, which is comparable to the international standards. So the trainees are able to stay in any European country for their studies. The parts of education, which are done in one European country are taken into consideration in any other. So they needn’t fear any loss of their already passed exams if they change their residence.

In the beginning, the education for registered nurses in Austria was set at a specific nurses’ school, which is seen as a good preparation for working life. But if students changed their residence, the conversion into another country showed its problems, because none of their previous exams was taken into consideration. To enable a crediting of all their positive results, the education is now raised to studies at the University of Applied Sciences.

As the federal states of Austria are legally reasonable for such a change in education, there are long transition periods, in which both types of education are run. During this period, graduates from the conventional schools and those from university have to work side by side at the wards in hospital. Registered nurses from both types of training are educated for exactly the same job, none is worthier than the other. Therefore working without any conflicts should be possible.

Any kind of friction within a team decreases the output enormously. The success of a nurses’ team is measurable by the healthily dismissed patients. This success should – economically spoken – be as big as possible, so that the working circumstances pay back. That’s why it’s necessary for each leader person to keep tensions within the team as low as possible. If colleagues with and without academical degrees meet, frictions could be predetermined.

This paper tries to clarify, if the graduates of these different types of education for registered nurses can work without or at least almost without any conflicts together on the ward. Additionally, it tries to show how the management can avoid such frictions or conflicts right from the beginning, to ensure productive work although the mixture of graduates.