Interprofessional Conflict

what's covered

This lesson will define interprofessional conflict and discuss strategies to minimize this conflict. Specifically, it will cover:

1. Interprofessional Conflict
2. Strategies
3. Reflect

1. Interprofessional Conflict

Currently, the landscape of healthcare is a complexity that necessitates healthcare teams to be vigilant in delivering safe and quality care. Interprofessional conflict negatively impacts the healthcare team to deliver quality patient-centered care. It is important that existing conflict is managed to minimize detrimental effects on staff morale, physical and mental as well as improve patient outcomes.

2. Strategies

Strategies include:

1. Deliberate placement of patients at the center, meaning that in any decision making, the patient is actively involved amidst the healthcare team (patient-centeredness).
2. Having mutual respect for another’s role, which refers to being aware of the different roles of the team and its expertise.
3. Open communication that fosters a culture of mutual support, collegiality, and trust.
4. Shared decision making where everyone is aware of what is going on with the patient through scheduled meetings and everyone has the opportunity to contribute to the decision and team operations.
5. Shared leadership that distributes leadership responsibilities to the team.
6. Active listening, where an opportunity is given to an individual to share his/her ideas, feelings, and thought processes without interruption.

3. Reflect

You are precepting a new hire in your unit. One of the goals for the day is to make sure that this new hire gets to experience an intravenous insertion. One patient of yours was a difficult stick. You offered your preceptee the opportunity to try to insert the IV, providing awareness that not all intravenous insertions are easy. The attempt failed and since the patient’s medication was now nearly overdue, you called for assistance from the emergency room department (ED). The ED nurse came up and during the process requested a supply that was not there. You left the room to find the supply, leaving the preceptee with the ED nurse so the entire process could be observed. Upon your return to the patient’s room, you heard the ED nurse talking to the preceptee with the patient listening. The ED nurse said, “That was a piece of cake. I often wonder why you guys call us to insert your IVs. Are there any competent nurses on this floor?”

reflect

As the preceptor of the new hire and the primary care nurse of the patient, how do you address this situation?

Authored by Solimar Figueroa, PhD, MSN, MHA, BSN, RN, P-PCA

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