Conflict Management in Healthcare: Research and Solutions

This report delves into the critical topic of conflict management within healthcare settings. It begins by defining conflicts, differentiating between various types, and emphasizing their prevalence in the healthcare environment. The report highlights the specific challenges and conflicts that arise, such as disagreements over treatment protocols and poor communication, and their detrimental impact on patient care. It then explores conflict management approaches, specifically focusing on strategies designed to de-escalate conflicts and improve efficiency. A study on a paediatric hospital in England is presented, which implemented a training program to equip staff with conflict resolution skills. The results of the study showed a positive impact, leading to reduced human burden and economic stress within the healthcare setting. References to relevant research papers are included to support the findings.

CONFLICT
MANAGEMENT
Names of the Presenter:
Name of the University:
Author’s Name:

Conflicts
 Conflict are dispute that may occur due to
disagreement or clash of interest.
 Conflicts are common in all sectors
 The reason of conflict vary greatly (Kfouri &
Lee, 2019).
 There are four different types of conflict
1. With self
2. With others
3. With environment
4. With supernatural

Conflict in Healthcare sector
 Conflicts are a part of the healthcare
setting.
 It occur due to disagreement in term of:
1. Treatment protocol
2. Treatment process
3. Poor communication system
4. Others
 It has various negative impact on the
healthcare setting affecting the quality of
care.

Conflict management approach
 Conflict management approach is the strategy used to de-escalate the conflict.
 It is an inevitable part as it help in improving the efficiency level.
 However, it can be seen that it is not included in clinical training.
 According to Forbat et al. (2017), conflict management strategies help in mitigating conflict among
the paediatric staffs.
 The study was conducted with the aim of development of a new approach of conflict resolution.

Conflict management approach
 The study was conducted upon 711 staff in
a tertiary teaching paediatric hospital in
England.
 A 4 hour training program was introduced
among the respondent that offered
knowledge of de-escalating the conflicts.
 Use of questionnaire was done for
collection of data
 Positive result was obtained

Conflict management approach
 From the result, it was concluded that the new training had a positive effect on conflict
management.
 It helped in reducing human burden as the staffs were able to manage conflict.
 In addition, it also helped in mitigating economic stress on the healthcare setting.

References
Forbat, L., Simons, J., Sayer, C., Davies, M., & Barclay, S. (2017).
Training paediatric healthcare staff in recognising, understanding
and managing conflict with patients and families: findings from a
survey on immediate and 6-month impact. Archives of disease in
childhood, 102(3), 250-254. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-
2016-310737
Kfouri, J., & Lee, P. E. (2019). Conflict Among Colleagues: Health
Care Providers Feel Undertrained and Unprepared to Manage
Inevitable Workplace Conflict. Journal of Obstetrics and
Gynaecology Canada, 41(1), 15-20.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jogc.2018.03.132