Conflict Management Case Study: Training in Pediatric Healthcare

This case study examines conflict management strategies employed in pediatric healthcare settings to prevent conflict escalation. It highlights the frequent occurrence of conflicts due to the fragmented nature of healthcare and the diverse opinions of stakeholders, emphasizing the negative impact on both practitioners and patients. The study explores the use of training, specifically Kaufman’s curriculum, to equip medical staff with the skills to identify and de-escalate conflicts with patients and families. Key strategies used by healthcare practitioners include role-play, effective listening, confidentiality, and empathy, all aimed at fostering understanding, trust, and mutual resolution. The case study concludes by referencing research that supports the effectiveness of these strategies in reducing healthcare conflict.

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Conflict Management Case Study
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Conflict Management Case Study
This study focused on the conflict management strategies that can be used by healthcare
organizations to prevent conflict escalation. Conflicts occur frequently in healthcare settings
because it is a fragmented landscape with many players who may sometimes have different
opinions and objectives. Conflicts have negative effects to both the healthcare practitioners as
well as the client. While the use of traditional conflict resolution strategies have proved to be
effective, the changes in practice have called for better strategies that can help avoid involving a
third party. This case study therefore explores the use of training strategy to help identify and de-
escalate conflicts with patients and families in pediatric setting.
In this case study, Kaufman’s curriculum for training medical staff on how to identify
and respond to conflict was used since it takes into account the time constrains, the nee for
changes in behavior, the power structures of the setting, the assumed skills as well as the legal
parameters for managing conflict. The strategies that were frequently used by the medical
practitioners in the pediatric settings include role play, effective listening, confidentiality, and
empathy (Forbat, Simons, Sayer, Davies, & Barclay, 2017). By making the working scenes with
realistic and relevant to the patient’s experiences, role play enabled the healthcare practitioners to
be able to deal with the conflicts. Role plays involves stepping into the shoes of a different
character. Role play was used to help the patients to diverge from their boundaries hence
openness. The nurses also used effective listening as a strategy to support the patients in
understanding their own thoughts and feelings about the conflict they are involved in. Effective
listening is hearing and understanding the message being conveyed by a different person and
responding appropriately. Effective listening helped the nurses clearly understand the facts and
feelings of the patients, hence reducing tension and defensiveness. Confidentiality is another

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strategy that was used in this case study to avoid escalation of conflicts. Confidentiality involves
keeping private information share by the patient. In conflict resolution, nurses offered private
consultation to the patients so as to create trust and understand the root cause of the problem.
Lack of confidentiality may result in withholding important information that can help solve the
conflicts (Forbat, & Barclay, 2018). The use of empathy which involves putting yourself in
another person’s situation is another strategy that was used by the nurses to solve conflicts. In
order to identify and prevent escalation of the conflicts, nurses used empathy to acknowledge the
issues and the frustrations that accompanies the issue so as to come to a mutual understanding.

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Reference
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.
Forbat, L., & Barclay, S. (2018). Reducing healthcare conflict: outcomes from using the conflict
management framework. Archives of disease in childhood, archdischild-2018.