Dealing with Conflict in Healthcare
Conflict is a part of life and not something that we can avoid, especially in the workplace. When large groups of people have to work together, emotions and opposing ideas can cause friction. In highly stressful work environments — such as healthcare settings— tension arising from conflict can make a taxing job even more difficult.
Like most people, healthcare workers want to be able to resolve conflicts with co-workers in a way that solves the problem at hand without undermining the working relationship. This, however, can prove to be difficult. Conflicts often turn into more of a competition than a collaboration and things “go south” quickly.
Taking a collaborative approach to conflict resolution is a key interpersonal skill. When developing this skill, employees must be willing to look at how they typically behave when faced with conflict and consider if this behavior is conducive to finding win-win solutions.
The video training program Dealing with Conflict, Healthcare Version teaches how to take responsibility for, and resolve, conflict in the workplace. Based on the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, the program uses multiple scenarios to highlight the five most common positions people take during contentious situations: avoiding, accommodating, competing, compromising, and collaborating. It then explains why collaborating is typically the best course of action and provides tips for using this conflict mode.
The program is also available in a general business version titled Dealing with Conflict.
Tags: Conflict in Healthcare, Learning to deal with conflict in healthcare
