Sources of Conflict Between Families and Health Care Professionals

Abstract

It is essential to examine conflict between patients and health care professionals from the patient's perspective. The purposes of this study were to 1) identify sources of conflict, 2) determine nursing interventions that alleviate conflict, and 3) test a conceptual framework of sources of conflict. This phenomenological study focused on children with cancer and their parents' perceptions of conflicts with health care professionals as well as what they thought helped with such conflicts. Their reports of conflict were compared to C. W. Moore's circle of conflict conceptual framework. A purposive sample of 27 participants (9 children, 14 mothers, and 4 fathers) participated in the study. Study findings showed that conflict occurred between health care professionals and families originating from differences in expectations and desires regarding data, interests, structure, relationships, and values, consistent with C. W. Moore's conceptual framework. Nursing interventions reported by children and parents to be helpful in preventing or alleviating conflict were identified. C. W. Moore's framework may provide a valuable structure for assessing conflict and designing nursing interventions to alleviate conflict.

Professional Caregivers’ Perceptions of Providing Information to Parents of Children With Cancer

“…Yet, distress may spring also from factors within the health care system, such as conflicts concerning relationships, structure, and values (Clarke, 2004;Moore & Kordick, 2006), or badly given information. For example, parents who did not understand the information had more psychosomatic symptoms (Sloper, 1996).…”

Children With Cancer and Their Parents: Self-Care and Dependent-Care Practices

“…In the content analysis, self-care practices were coded using a deductive approach according to Orem's self-care requisites (Berg, 1998;Huberman & Miles, 2002). Data were informants' narratives which were analyzed previously for instances of conflict with health care providers (Moore & Beckwitt, 2003;Moore & Kordick, 2004).…”

Dysfunctional Health Service Conflict

“…107,108 Data conflicts are common in health care because ''The complexity of the health care environment makes it difficult for patients and their families to obtain information, and often the information that is provided is difficult to comprehend under the best of circumstances.'' 109 Examples abound.…”

“…107,108 Some interest conflicts have a broad psychological overlay such as when families expect nursing homes to provide warm, attentive, and personalized care only to discover that these expectations are hard to meet. 5 Another example is how the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy rules can upset family members when they demand information that they have no right to.…”

“…At the organizational level, structural conflicts involve resource allocations, status differences, role assignments, spatial and organizational relationships, and rules and regulations. 107,108 At the group and microindividual levels, differences arise from gender, age, and other sociodemographic factors. We have already seen how these factors stoke conflict by creating goal gaps and competition between different organizational stakeholders, giving rise to the sort of interrole and interspecialization conflicts discussed before: medicos versus administrators, physicians versus nurses, malpractice advocates versus healers, and so forth.…”