Teaching Students and Faculty to Engage in Effective Team Conflict

At the completion of this seminar the participant will be able to:

1. Relate the IPEC Core Competencies to potential root causes for professional conflict within a team.
2. Engage in self-reflection to identify root causes for emotional disturbances in a team setting.
3. Facilitate effective conflict within an interprofessional team by promoting psychological safety and utilizing different strategies to develop a plan that addresses the root cause of the conflict.
4. Value conflict within a team.

Students who are beginning their professional education may not have experienced effective interprofessional teamwork, making it difficult for them to find value in introductory learning activities regarding interprofessional collaboration. Interprofessional education activities early in training can help create interprofessional identities before professional identities are solidified, but if students fail to see the relevance to their future practice, the benefits are minimized. Team conflict provides an innovative framework for teaching students and faculty about the IPEC Core Competencies. Most, if not all, health professions students have experienced conflict in the workplace, directly or indirectly. Because of this, students recognize how learning about professional roles and responsibilities, interprofessional values and ethics, team communication, and team dynamics will improve patient outcomes in their future practice. This same framework can be utilized for training faculty and staff in the university clinical setting so that students see effective interprofessional conflict modeled when they reach the clinical stages of their education.

Outline:

1. Defining conflict and effective conflict (lecture)
2. IPEC Core Competencies and the possibilities for conflict (lecture):
   • Shared Values and Ethics
   • Team Communication
   • Roles and Responsibilities
   • Team Dynamics
3. Self-reflection activity:
   • Think of an example of an unproductive conflict you experienced in the workplace.
   • Which of the four competencies was at the root of the conflict?
   • What was the primary reason the conflict was unproductive?
4. Strategies for Effective Conflict (lecture)
   • Starting the Conversation
   • Promoting Psychological Safety
   • Making a Plan for Future Action: Accommodate, Avoid, Collaborate, Compromise, or Compete
5. Self-reflection activity: Re-write the script for the conflict from the first reflection activity, but this time utilize the “Strategies for Effective Conflict”
6. Small group share:
   • In groups of 3 (in Zoom breakout rooms), share your conflict scenario and how you would improve it. Give one another feedback.
   • Return to the full seminar group, and if there is time share some examples of improved conflict re-writes.
7. Assessment: Use of IPEC Core Competency Self-Assessment for students and faculty
8. Wrap up and questions

Skills:

• Recognize root causes for team conflict
• Initiate conversations with team members that address a conflict
• Promote psychological safety while talking with others about conflict
• Utilize the Thomas-Kilmann modes of conflict (Accommodate, Avoid, Compete, Collaborate, Compromise) appropriately to formulate a plan that addresses the root cause of a conflict.

Practical Knowledge:

• Apply conflict to each of the IPEC Core Competencies
• Measure student or faculty learning when using conflict as a framework for IPE