Conflicts in Health Care Institutions
Introduction
Conflicts are common disagreements that occur in every place of work, healthcare institutions not an exception. Conflicts can happen between two or more people, two or more groups or between a person and a group (Sullivan, 2017).In healthcare institutions conflicts may occur between health care staff, between support staff, between health care and support staff and between health care staff and the patient or the patient’s family. These conflicts may be simple disagreements or may escalate to violence. This essay seeks to examine the major types of conflicts and ways of handling these conflicts in a health care institution as well as the models of negotiation by applying the theory of “Action
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Interpersonal conflict occurs when two or more people disagree on issues (Winston, 2017). Intrapersonal conflicts in a health care institution can arise because of different opinions on shift allocation, team allocation or leave days. Interpersonal conflicts can interfere with workflow and thus when such are too common a mediator can be brought on board to help solve these conflicts.
Intragroup conflict
Formation of groups or departments are important to improve work efficiency and management however, these groups can at times be the cause of problems especially when group members are not able to agree on issues. Intragroup conflict is a type of conflict that occurs among people within a team or a group (Winston, 2017). Intragroup conflicts in a healthcare institution can arise because of a member talking negatively of another member, frequent lateness and a member not willing to help out another member with his/her patients. However, if these are getting too common then it is good to seek the help of another person to solve the
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Conflicts may occur between health care staff, between support staff, between health care and support staff and between health care staff and the patient or the patient’s family. This looked at the major types of conflicts and ways of handling these conflicts in a health care institution as well as the models of negotiation by applying the theory of “Action Research Model”. Types of conflicts are intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup and intergroup conflicts. Ways of managing conflicts are avoiding, compromising, accommodating, competing and collaborating. Negotiation can be used as a way of solving conflicts by applying the Action Research Model theory that involves using a consultant who can either be a part of the organization or not to identify the problem and work with the parties to find a solution. The three models of negotiation are win-win, win-lose and lose-lose models. Conflicts can have both positive and negative effects on employees and on the organization as a whole therefore conflicts should be dealt with and a solution found as soon as they arise to avoid interference with work and to ensure a peaceful and friendly working