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Conflict Management in a Healthcare Organization

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Conflict Management in a Healthcare Organization
"Man's greatest discovery is teamwork by agreement,"(B. Brewster Jennings). As an aspiring nurse practitioner and undergraduate nursing student, I choose to recognize the efficacy and importance in not only avoiding conflict in the healthcare workplace but also effectively resolving conflict as well. Based on the Illinois State Medical Society, ongoing hospital conflict can cost an organization or hospital over millions of dollars each year whether it is in new training costs for new personnel or simply lost productivity (All Medical Personnel).
According to the Illinois Medical Society "to replace an employee dismissed in a conflict can cost up to 160% of his or her salary." With that being said; the Illinois Medical Society provides surprising statistical data that further marks conflict as a problem within the healthcare workplace. Furthermore, a company that does not have any ways to deal with or ensure that conflicts are resolved is a step behind because there are many disadvantages to unresolved conflict. According to Illinois Medical Society , some consequences of unresolved conflict are:
· anxiety
· stress
· productivity loss
· Litigation and strained relationships
Moreover, although there are many opportunities for conflict to arise even out of the healthcare workplace, the behaviors of employees can be a direct cause of conflict whether it is involuntarily or voluntary. According to the Harvard school of Public Health, many of these conflicts are an outgrowth of larger changes in the healthcare system (2013).
Automatically as we enter the healthcare workplace, we must be mindful that because healthcare is a teamwork profession, you are immediately placed in the mix of recurrent disputes and conflicts that may need negotiation or mediation (HSPH, 2013). In Marcus J. Leonard's Renegotiating Healthcare: Resolving Conflict to Build Collaboration, sometimes a third party is needed to settle dispute that the two

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