The Effect of Interprofessional Conflict Resolution on Interprofessional Collaborative Practice among Health Care Provider Teams in Hospitals
Abstract
Client needs and their complexities have increased, challenging multiple professionals to work together within health systems to reach better patient outcomes. Addressing this challenge requires interprofessional collaboration, which, while essential, may also breed conflict given that individuals from various health care disciplines each bring their unique perspectives into teamwork. While some degree of disagreement is expected, team members must be able to resolve conflicts to ensure effective patient care. However, limited information was available that described and clearly defined interprofessional conflict resolution as a concept.
The aim of this study was threefold. This study began with a concept analysis of interprofessional conflict resolution (IPCR) as a means to identify its attributes to generate instrument items. This study then carried out development and testing of the psychometric properties of an instrument designed to measure IPCR among health care teams, followed by development and evaluation of the effect of an interventional education program to resolve interprofessional conflicts in teams. Finally, the testing of a theoretically derived model linking the relationship between health care providers’ personal factors (general self-efficacy and team psychological safety) and interpersonal communication competence on interprofessional collaborative practice, and explored if these relationships were moderated by interprofessional conflict resolution. The Interprofessional Conflict Resolution Scale was found to be valid and reliable. The findings indicated that participants’ perceived learning effectiveness based on their learning outcome ratings represented 93.3% learning effectiveness from the training program. This study identified five emerging themes from participants’ reflections and open- ended answers from the feedback form supporting the transfer of learning into the practice. The theoretically derived model tested in this research study was supported by the data collected, with the exception of one hypothesis (H4).