Guide for Nurse Managers From The Center For American Nurses The Conflict Engagement Portfolio

Knowledge + Competency + Coaching = Healthy Work Environments

Why “Conflict Engagement”?

Conflict is inevitable in every work environment. Horizontal violence, “eating our young”, and bullying are common terms that healthcare providers are familiar with, yet avoidance remains the most commonly used strategy in dealing with disruptive behavior of peers, managers and physicians.

At the Center for American Nurses, our goal is to help healthcare providers learn the benefits and skills for Conflict Engagement by discovering how to have the critical conversations that will lead to healthier work environments.

The Joint Commission gets involved

The Joint Commission has updated their leadership standards to include the following new standards, which go into effect in January 2009:

“The organization manages conflict between leadership groups to protect the quality and safety of care.” LD.2.40

This requires, in part, that organizational leaders implement a process for conflict management and that those implementing such a process be skilled in conflict management. The Center’s Conflict Engagement program utilizes the strategies in assisting healthcare workers to engage in the crucial conversations to elicit changes and promote positive healthier work environments.

The Conflict Engagement Portfolio

The curriculum is based on successful training techniques provided to over 5,000 health care professionals internationally for over a decade.

The good news is that the ability to resolve and address conflict involves skills that can be learned, practiced and applied to every workplace setting.

The Conflict Engagement Portfolio’s target audience is every healthcare professional regardless of their background or their current position. For those already with familiar with conflict, the offerings of the portfolio will reinforce their knowledge while providing the opportunity to enhance their skills in conflict engagement.

There are three parts to the conflict portfolio.

 Part One: The Online Education Module

 Part Two: Skills-Based Training for Health Care Professionals

 Part Three: Coaching: Learning to Integrate Conflict Engagement Skills Depending on the needs of you or your organization, the three distinct parts may be used separately or as part of a series to reinforce learned competencies.

The curriculum is based on successful training techniques provided to over 5000 health care professionals internationally for over a decade. The training program design incorporates an evidence-based approach integrating research and best practices from the professional health care, dispute resolution, and adult learning literature.

The program content reflects key objectives set forth for Magnet and Pathway to Excellence accreditation (including safe practice environments and strategies for addressing abuse and disruption); the Joint Commission standards and recommended strategies for addressing behaviors that impact patient care; and the Veterans Health Administration Employee High Performance Development Core Competencies (including interpersonal effectiveness, flexibility/ adaptability, creative thinking, and customer service).

Part One: Knowledge: The Online Conflict Module

As part one of the Conflict Portfolio, the Online Conflict Module provides healthcare leaders with an overview of conflict engagement and conflict resolution. This module is accessed through the internet and may be used as a stand-alone educational offering or as the first part of the Center’s Conflict Portfolio offering.

Through the use of case studies and reflective exercises, participants will learn:

 Positive conflict behaviors

 Conflict styles

 The nature of conflict

 Self- assessment

 How to assess conflict

 Healthy conflict strategies

Part Two: Competency: Skills-Based Training for Health Care Professionals

The skills-based conflict engagement training program is designed to reinforce the link between constructive conflict engagement skills with patient safety and healthy work environments. The emphasis is placed on integration of knowledge, skills-practice, simulation and coaching to optimize transferability of skills to the professional practice environment.

Program Design:

The curriculum is based on successful training techniques provided to over 5000 health care professionals internationally for over a decade. The training program design incorporates an evidence-based approach integrating research and best practices from the professional health care, dispute resolution, and adult learning literature.

This innovative program is a blended-learning program that contains

 Pre-training assessment

 Teacher-led skills-based training session.

 Post-training assessment to determine perceived changes in knowledge and skill

Target Audience:

This training program is designed for health care professionals who seek additional skills when:

 Assessing conflict situations

 Initiating difficult conversations  Responding to strong emotions

 Expanding options for effective resolution of disputes

Part Three: Coaching: Learning to Integrate Conflict Engagement Skills

Leaders and healthcare providers can learn to utilize their new skills obtained by participation in the Center’s Online Skills-Based Training through the unique Conflict Coaching Program. This program will be offered several weeks after the training program and will serve as a follow-up with the information that they received during part one and two of the course.

Through one-on-one discussions or small group coaching sessions, participants will:

 Be coached as they Integrate their knowledge and new competencies into their own professional practice

 Practice their new skills utilizing real-world scenarios that they have encountered within their own work settings.

 Gain valuable feedback on their approaches and techniques when resolving conflict