Healthcare conflicts: resolution mode choices of doctors and nurses in a tertiary care teaching institute

Conflict begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected, or is about to affect negatively, something that the first party cares about. For decades hospitals and other healthcare providers and organizations have recognized the need for managing conflict within the healthcare workplace in order to assure that conflict does not impede quality care and patient safety. The purpose of this study was to identify and compare conflict mode choices of doctors and nurses in a tertiary care teaching institute and examine the relationship of conflict mode choices with their background characteristics. 120 doctors & 120 nurses were surveyed, using the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Instrument. A similarity was found doctors and nurses in choice of the most frequently used mode in conflict management. The avoiding mode was found to be the significantly most commonly chosen mode (P = <0.05) by both.