Like any other field, interpersonal disagreements are inevitable in healthcare institutions. The conflicts might be caused by several factors, ranging from personal discontent, role incompatibilities, lack of information and communication, and workplace anxiety. These disruptive behaviors are more likely to entail stress and frustration, and weak team collaboration among healthcare workers. Conflicts in the workplace are more likely to negatively affect patient care and safety due to the inefficient functioning of healthcare workers.
Disruptive behaviors in the healthcare workplace can significantly impact the functioning of healthcare workers. Such disputes can include disagreements between healthcare professionals and patients and between healthcare professionals themselves. These contentions can result in adverse outcomes, including employee turnover, medical management, patient safety, and care (Kfouri & Lee, 2019). Nevertheless, patients are the most vulnerable in such conflicts since they are already mentally or physically worse. One of the most prevalent ways conflicts impact patient care is the stress and anxiety derived from disputes, which influences the healthcare professionals’ concentration (Kim et al., 2017). The lack of attention is more likely to lead to medical errors, hence, impairing patient care. Thus, one of the primary ways conflict in the workplace might affect patient care is through stress and anxiety of losing healthcare professionals’ concentration.
Moreover, the conflicting goals between healthcare professionals in terms of patient treatment can lead to worse patient care due to a lack of cooperation and information-sharing. The healthcare professionals’ reluctance to cooperate can entail medical errors and misunderstandings. These disagreements are further exacerbated by patient preferences, resource availability, and hierarchy in the decision-making (Kim et al., 2017). As a result, aspects such as teamwork and interpersonal trust that significantly influence optimal client care are diminished.
To conclude, disruptive behaviors in the healthcare workplace have a profoundly negative effect on the patient health outcome due to the inefficient functioning of staff. Namely, due to weak collaboration between healthcare workers and professionals’ loose concentration, patients become the victims of medical errors, or in worst cases, mortality. Therefore, hospitals and other healthcare institutions must incorporate conflict management and leadership programs to prevent such occurrences.
References
Kfouri, J., & Lee, P. E. (2019). Conflict among colleagues: Health care providers feel undertrained and unprepared to manage inevitable workplace conflict. Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada, 41(1), 15–20. Web.
Kim, S., Bochatay, N., Relyea-Chew, A., Buttrick, E., Amdahl, C., Kim, L., Frans, E., Mossanen, M., Khandekar, A., Fehr, R., & Lee, Y.-M. (2017). Individual, interpersonal, and organisational factors of healthcare conflict: A scoping review. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 31(3), 282–290. Web.