Sources and Resolving of Heath Care Conflicts - Research Proposal Example

Health Care Conflict CHAPTER ONE Introduction Background Health is a fundamental human need and a lot of care needs to be taken when disseminating it. However conflicts always arise in health care. The conflict can either be between health providers and the patients or among the health professional themselves. When giving health care, medical practitioners are encouraged to work with the patient and the patient’s family to ensure that no conflict arises either because cultural practices, or religious beliefs and medical ethics were violated. This is especially important in the case of first responders who have on several occasions been blamed for overlooking cultural practices when responding to emergency calls. Health professionals in the 21st century, work in an environment plagued with conflicts, and disputes that sometimes need negotiations. There are a myriad of conflicts in health care. However these conflicts which can be form the two sides of parties involved in health care; patients and professionals, need to be solved amicably to ensure they do not come in the way of the provision of quality health care. The interaction between medical practitioners and patients cannot be avoided since they both need each other for health care to be a reality. Conflicts are bound to arise but then their resolution dictates whether they will end in legal litigation or amicably. For conflict to be solved between patients and medical practioners, negotiation skills have to be applied (Marshall and Robson, 139). The kinds of conflict in healthcare are always between practitioners and patients, practitioners and the management, and the providers of funds and the health care administrators. As mentioned before conflict in inevitable in health care however there are situations that perpetuate the arising of conflict in health care. The complexity of health care systems makes it easy for conflict to arise in multiple levels in the system. Some of the factors that contribute to health care conflicts are; ethical, religious and cultural diversity of the consumers of health care services and providers. These differences create a background for conflict and barriers to solving those problems. Another factor that contributes to conflict in health care is the disagreements between health care professionals. These disagreements can be on administration matters or treatment decisions. Conflict can also arise when family members of the patient reject or challenge the treatment plan recommended by the medical practitioner. This might cause frustrations and anger on the physician. In some cases, health care conflicts have led to legal litigations which have hefty compensations and losses on both sides of the divide. In some of the cases, blame has been laid on health practioners. It is therefore important that health care practitioners are not just equipped with medical fundamentals in medical school, they should also be taught negotiation and conflict resolution skills. In this way, conflicts will be minimized but in case of conflicts, they will have the necessary skills to negotiate and resolve them before they get out of control. Medical practitioners should focus on the provision of a patient centred healthcare that caters for religious, cultural and ethical beliefs. Problem statement Conflicts in health care have been on the rise in America, with some of the conflicts making it to the news channels and other forms of media. With the proposal of the Obamacare, there have been many debates on affordable health care and whether the proposed health care will be instrumental in reducing cases of conflicts in health care. Given that there have been conflicts in health care, it is surprising to note that negotiation and conflict resolutions skills are not taught in medical schools. This has made it challenging for health professionals to resolve conflicts when they arise. All health professionals should be equipped with conflict resolution and negotiation skills to make them prepared for such event when they arise in their line of duty. Given that the contact between patients and medical practitioner takes place on a daily basis, conflicts will always arise. a factor which makes conflict resolution a fundamental part of medical training. To this end, the proposed research study on health care conflict, intends to looks at the conflict between patients and health care professional and how these conflicts can be resolved amicably. Significance of the research study Conflict arises in everyday life, but conflict resolution is a skill that if one is equipped with will help them navigate the murky road that life is. The research study on health care conflict is significant because of many reasons. It will add to the pool of knowledge on health care conflict and how to minimize and resolve conflicts in healthcare. By highlighting the causes of healthcare conflict, the research study will be able to equip medical practitioners and prospective health practitioners with the necessary pit falls to avoid in their medical practice. The information in the research can also be beneficial to scholars, teachers and future researchers on health care conflict. Research objectives Research objectives are meant to steer the research study in the right direction and make sure the intended purpose is achieved. The research objectives formulated for the research study on health care conflict are; Find out the sources of health care conflict Examine how health care conflicts can be reduced in the provision of health care. Ensure that health care conflict does not come into the way of the provision of quality health care. Find out how to equip health care professionals with conflict resolution skills and prepare them for health care conflict resolution at the work place. Find ways of resolving health care conflicts before they lead to legal litigations. Research questions The research questions formulated for the research study on health care conflict are What are the sources of heath care conflicts? How can health conflicts be resolved? What skills are needed for effective health care conflict resolution? What are the kinds of health care conflicts experienced in the medical industry? What role does culture, ethnicity and religion play in health care conflict? Scope Though there are many kinds of conflicts that arise in health care, this research study will focus on the health care conflicts that arise between health care professionals and consumers. The research study on health care conflict will focus on the conflict between patients or consumers and health care professionals. It will look at the sources of conflict in the provision of health care, factors that cause conflict in health care and how these conflicts and be resolves. The research study on health care conflict will also look at ways in which health care professionals can be equipped with conflict resolution and negotiations skills to aid them in their practices and in cases where conflicts arise in their duties. The research will also review literature pertaining to the conflict between consumers and health care providers. Literature on how to equip health care professionals with conflict resolution and negotiation skills will also be looked at. The research study will also look at literature on how culture and religious can be taken into consideration in the provision of health care. The research study will make use of both primary and secondary sources of information. Secondary data will be used because it provides the foundation of the study and because it can be used to gauge the results and reliability of conducting primary research. Because of the gaps in secondary sources of information, it will be important to conduct primary research in order to fill the gaps left by secondary research. Study outline The research study on health care conflict will be divided into segments that will include introduction chapter, literature review chapter, methodology chapter, analysis and conclusion and recommendations chapter. The introduction chapter will give the fundamentals of the research study and why it was conducted. The literature review chapter will look at the literature on the subject under study while the methodology chapter will give a chronological account of how the research study was conducted. Analysis and interpretation chapter will analyse the results obtained from primary research and see if it concurs with the literature review findings. The conclusion chapter will give a summary of the research findings and state whether the research study has answered the research questions and achieved the research objectives. It will also give recommendations to improve future research and for further research. CHAPTER TWO Literature review Factors that cause conflict in healthcare Conflict in health care between patients and medical practitioners emanate from different opinions and practices. Medical practitioners perform their duties as ethical as humanly possible but in some instances the recommended treatments plan might not be acceptable to the patient and cause conflict. In some instances, the conflict begins when first responders respond to a distress call. When responding to a distress call, the first responders are always focused on saving life. A case in point was when two paramedics responded to a call where a child had become unconscious. When they got there, they were told that the boy had collapsed while he was standing on the truck that belonged to the family. However because the parents of the child were non Spanish speakers were too shocked to speak English, a neighbor did the translation. The paramedics then treated the child took the information they got from the translator and took the child to the pediatric trauma centre. The child unfortunately died after being on life support for three days. The parents blamed the first responders for taking too much time getting information because they suspected child abuse. They hired a lawyer claiming that the responders acted in a discriminatory manner because they were Hispanic and that their child was not given appropriate patient care (Dees, 34). Autopsy results revealed that the child had suffered a ruptured congenital brain aneurysm; a condition which would have killed him even if it had taken place in the emergency room. Even though the paramedics were found not to be at fault, the family and the city negotiated an out of court settlement of $93,000. This shows how conflict in healthcare can cost county governments and even hospitals. Another factor that causes conflict in health care is culture. People are often defined by their faith, values, ethnicity race and heritage. Medical practitioners interact with patients from different backgrounds and this sets the stage for conflict in health care. Most cultures have ways of treating illnesses and explanations for the cause of their illnesses. Some of these cultural practices are in direct conflict with medical practice. In some communities in Southeast Asia practice known as ‘cao gio’ known as coining in English. In coining, oil is used with a coin to scrub a patient’s back until some little blood comes out. Coining causes marks on the back especially if performed on a child. When such a child comes to America and is taken to the hospital, the medical practitioner examining the child might think that the child is being abused by the parent while in real sense it is a cultural practice (Betancourt, Green, Carrillo, and Park, 410). If a practitioner is not aware of this culture he can accuse the parent of child abuse leading to a conflict. Religious belief is another factor that can cause conflict in health care. Some religions like Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that the Bible does not allow blood transfusions and therefore their members do not accept blood transfusions neither do they donate blood. This has cause conflict especially in cases where a patient is in need of blood transfusion. In some instances, the conflict comes about when a medical practitioner refuses to perform a medical procedure that conflicts with his or her religious beliefs. A case in point was in California where a judge ruled against doctors who had refused to perform an artificial insemination on a woman because she was a lesbian. The doctors were blamed for denying the patient her right to medical services and that they put their religious beliefs before the needs of the patient. The case was decision was supported by the Unruh Act that prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender, race religion, disability and sexual orientation. Dealing with conflict in healthcare In order to mitigate the negative publicity and legal litigations that result from health care conflict, medical practitioners need to be equipped with conflict resolution and negotiation skills. Before giving a treatment plan, medical practitioners should listen to the patients, explain the planned treatment acknowledge the patients point of view, state what he or she recommends and then negotiate with the patient on the best possible treatment. The patient will be more at ease knowing that their culture and other concerns are valued by the medical practitioner in their treatment plan. Conflict resolution however needs to be taught in medical and nursing school. Prospective medical personnel need to be equipped with conflict resolution skills and cultural competencies that will help them when they encounter such incidences in their practice. Despite all the conflicts and law suits related to health care, it is a shame that medical and nursing schools do not equip their students adequately. More should be done to increase practitioners’ skills in conflict resolution. Some of the skills that medical practitioners need to be equipped with in a medical care setting are; listening and understanding, reflection, openness and being present in the moment. Due to their busy schedules and chaotic work environment, medical practitioners are always busy thinking of many things that need to be done in a day’s work and fail to understand what they are being told in a better way. This makes listening and patient engagement one of the skills needed in conflict resolution in health care conflict. CHAPTER THREE Methodology The aim of the research study is to examine conflict in health care. To accomplish this, the research study came up with research questions which were then turned into objectives. The methodology chapter highlights the methods and techniques that will be used in the research to address gaps in the literature reviewed, answer research questions and consequently help in achieving the objectives of the research. It will highlight both primary and secondary data that are instrumental to the success of any research study. The methodology chapter will therefore look at; research design, data collection methods, data analysis, sampling techniques, research ethics, secondary data and primary data. Research design A research design has a fundamental effect on the outcome of the research study. It is therefore important that the research design chosen is poised to answer the research questions and achieve the research objectives. The research design for the study on health care conflict will be both qualitative and quantitative. This design will be used because it is the design that will appropriately help n answering of the research questions and the achievement of the research objectives. Research population Since the research study will be looking at health care conflict between patients and medical practitioners, the research population will be made up of medical practitioners from different levels and patients. Since the research population is large and there are time constraints, it would be difficult to interview everyone in the research population and complete the research study in the stipulated time. Research sample Due to the magnitude of the research population, a research sample will be used instead. However, the research sample will be representative of the entire population. The different kinds of sampling techniques are probability and non probability sampling method. In probability sampling method all the objects in a research population are given equal chances of participating in a research study where as in non probability sampling method, research objects to be used in the research study are chosen by the researcher. The research study on health care conflict will use the non probability sampling method. This is because it will give the researcher an opportunity to choose the respondents to participate in the research study (Denzin, and Lincoln, 201). Under non probability sampling method, the research study will make use purposive sampling because it will allow the researcher to choose respondents who in their opinion would be the most appropriate for the research study. However, care will be taken to ensure that the sample chosen will be a representative of the entire population. The researcher will also make sure that the respondents used in the research study are well conversant with the issue of health care conflict. Sources of data The sources of data that will be used in the research study are both primary and secondary. Secondary information will be obtained from books, journals and other published sources. Primary data on the other hand will be obtained the first hand information that will be given by the respondents. This will be done by using questionnaires and interviews. References Betancourt, J., Green, A., Carrillo, J. E, and Park. E. R. (2005). Cultural competence and health care disparities: Key perspectives and trends.Health Affairs, 24(2) 499-505 Dees, L., 2007. Culturally Competent Care in the Emergency Medical Services. Texas EMS magazine, pp 34-39 Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S., 2000. Handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage publications. Marshall, P., and Robson, R. 2003. Conflict Resolution in Healthcare: An overview. Interaction, 16(2), pp. 12-21. Read More