Healthcare Conflicts Resolution - Research Paper Example

As such, several solutions could be implemented to avoid conflicts in the general healthcare setting. In the case of conflicts between the health care provider (physician) and patient (together with their family), the care provider should aim at working hand in hand with the patient’s family members so that no miscommunications on common issues such as cultural practices, beliefs and medics to be taken could occur. In the case of conflicts between the health care providers (physicians) or the care providers and the staff, they should aim at knowing how to solve problems by following the work ethics which could be inclusive of negotiation skills that would promote good conduct and peace among the parties involved (Marshall and Robson, 2005).

It is also worth noting that conflicts can occur in all manners and forms. They may range from arguments about practice or the normal disagreements between people in a specified setting. In other occurrences, conflicts could lead to extreme actions such as violence or proceedings (litigations). Based on that, the general outcome of conflicts is that they affect the health care being disbursed to patients, productivity and morale of workers. In adverse situations, conflicts could lead to employee turnover (Ramsay, 2001).

Conflicts in the health care setting arise from various factors that are highly unavoidable but then again, they are highly preventable. For example, if the physician is not in agreement with what their colleague proposes and does, then it is without a doubt that a disagreement (conflict) would occur. On the other hand, if the patient together with their family members does not agree with what the physician proposes in terms of care procedure and medics, then again, conflicts are prone to occur based on the decisions made. The solution to these problems is that the physician could learn to incorporate communication as well as negotiation skills while dealing with other people. In that sense, if the care provider understands the needs of the patient and proposes reasonable solutions to them, then the conflict would not occur. On the other hand, in the case of physician-to-physician conflicts, if both parties could also communicate effectively and come to a unified decision, then the conflict would be avoided by all means.

Several conflicts can happen in the healthcare setting. However, the scope of this research study is conflicts that are related to the patient and/ or their family and the health care provider (physician); the care provider (physician) with their colleagues and/ or staff. The study shall also focus on aspects that relate to the main sources (origins) of healthcare conflicts; the stages that conflicts take; the types of conflicts that occur in the healthcare environment; the solutions to the variety of conflicts that occur in practice; the costs that health care encounters when conflicts occur; the skills that the physician (health care provider) should have to avoid and mitigate conflicts.

To that, this research study shall utilize literature reviews and studies that have been conducted based on the topic of healthcare conflicts. As such, these will include more secondary data as compared to primary research data. The reason behind this is that secondary research has the following advantages: the data collected has already been peer-reviewed, hence analyzed and evaluated before being published; the data can be easily accessed from online databases; secondary research is much cheaper as compared to primary research; secondary research tends to reveal the problems that were encountered while conducting the initial primary research.

Whenever people are living together, conflicts are prone to arise due to disagreements based on issues of interest. As such, the health care setting is no different as more people are involved in this environment and each has their interests about how they want treatment and/ or care (for the case of patients) and how or when or where treatment should be disbursed (for the case of care providers and/ or physicians). As noted by the American Sentinel University (2011), the main sources of conflicts in the health care setting include differences in physician knowledge and power – which relate to aspects such as when or how or where care should be disbursed; cultural background of the patient and the care provider – some patients may prefer to be treated by a care provider with whom they share the same cultural background and ethnicity; religious beliefs which could be against science and medicine; differences in health care goals by the providers – this is where different care providers have different goals and each provider tries to achieve their personal goals at the expense of the other provider; access to limited resources in the care setting; limited time while working – for example, longer working hours and shifts that are not convenient. As such, these are the major areas and/ or sources that lead to the rise of conflicts in healthcare.