Conflict Management, Prevention, And Resolution in Medical Settings. (Conflict Management)‪.‬

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IS especially difficult for physicians to embrace, because most of us are highly confrontation adverse. This is not hard to understand if you look at "typical" personality traits of physicians. According to Vaillant (1) and Gabbard (2), physicians tend to be compulsive, perfectionistic, guilt-prone, with an exaggerated sense of responsibility, limited emotional expressiveness (especially with respect to anger), and significant communications deficits, in particular an inability to ask for help. We are workaholics and chronically over-committed. Most of these attributes are highly adaptive to doctoring, reinforced by medical training and rewarded by society. And being over-committed gives us a very convenient (and societally condoned) mechanism by which to avoid unpleasant confrontations or controversy. Our attendance to the "jealous mistress" of medical practice, especially in today's increasingly demanding practice environment, leaves little time for physicians to learn and practice conflict management, an essential life skill.