Conflict Resolution Styles and Skills and Variation among Medical Students

Abstract

Background: Conflict is inevitable on healthcare teams, yet few professional school curricula teach or assess conflict resolution skills. Little is known about the variation in conflict resolution styles across medical students and how these styles might impact conflict resolution skills.Methods: Graduating medical students completed a mandatory conflict resolution session with standardized patients acting as nurses during a transition to residency course. Coaches reviewed videotapes of simulated student-nurse encounters, focusing on students’ conflict resolution style (assessed with the Thomas-Kilman Instrument (TKI)) and student skills with negotiation and emotional intelligence. We also assessed the impact of knowing one’s conflict resolution style, student gender, race and intended field of practice on conflict resolution skills.Results: One hundred and eight students completed the simulated conflict session. Sixty-seven students completed the TKI before the simulated patient (SP) encounter and 41 after. The most common conflict resolution style was accommodating (n=40). Knowing one’s conflict resolution style in advance of the simulation and one’s identified race/ethnicity did not impact skill as assessed by faculty coaches. Students pursuing diagnosis-based specialties had higher negotiation (p=0.04) and emotional quotient (p=0.006) scores than those pursuing procedural specialties. Females had higher emotional quotient scores (p=0.02). Conclusions: Conflict resolution styles vary among medical students. Male gender and future practice in a procedural specialty impacted conflict resolution skills, but knowing conflict resolution style did not.

Conflict Management in Healthcare Leadership; A Narrative Review

“…The effective resolution of unmanageable conflicts in healthcare organizations warrants the systematic implementation of five styles of the Thomas-Kilman Instrument, which are measured on a cooperativeness and assertiveness scale [6]. These styles predominantly include compromising, competing, collaborating, avoiding, and accommodating attributes.…”

“…The conflict management tool by Thomas-Kilman is a robust procedure to evaluate the conduct and behaviors of people engaged in inter/intra-professional conflicts [29]. The assessment of the five tenets of the Thomas-Kilmann theory and the calculation of the Thomas-Kilman Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) scores assist in formulating robust conflict management strategies in healthcare settings [6]. The scores are individually obtained for each TKI mode, including collaborating, compromising, avoiding, accommodating, and competing.…”

“…The competition approach fast-tracks the conflict resolution but at the cost of risking the professional relationships that may reignite the conflict at any point in time. The compromise strategy helps to strengthen the professional relationships of people in conflict; however, it may lead to suboptimal solutions [6]. Finally, the collaboration style is the most effective way to resolve conflicts, but it can be a slow and complex process.…”

“…The goal of the avoiding style is to neglect the conflict in totality and leave it unaddressed or unattended [7]. The accommodating style; however, prioritizes the perspectives of one individual over the other to establish peace and harmony [6].…”