Department of Surgery, Faculty of School of Medicine, Southern Illinois University, Springfield, IL 67294, USA.
Med Educ. 2011 Sep;45(9):939-45. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2011.04040.x.
Conflict management has been identified as an essential competence for surgeons as they work in operating room (OR) teams; however, the optimal approach is unclear. Social science research offers two alternatives, the first of which recommends that task-related conflict be managed using problem-solving techniques while avoiding relationship conflict. The other approach advocates for the active management of relationship conflict as it almost always accompanies task-related conflict. Clarity about the optimal management strategy can be gained through a better understanding of conflict transformation, or the inter-relationship between conflict types, in this specific setting. The purpose of this study was to evaluate conflict transformation in OR teams in order to clarify the approach most appropriate for an educational conflict management programme for surgeons.
A constructivist grounded theory approach was adopted to explore the phenomenon of OR team conflict. Narratives were collected from focus groups of OR nurses and surgeons at five participating centres. A subset of these narratives involved transformation between and within conflict types. This dataset was analysed.
The results confirm that misattribution and the use of harsh language cause conflict transformation in OR teams just as they do in stable work teams. Negative emotionality was found to make a substantial contribution to responses to and consequences of conflict, notably in the swiftness with which individuals terminated their working relationships. These findings contribute to a theory of conflict transformation in the OR team.
There are a number of behaviours that activate conflict transformation in the OR team and a conflict management education programme should include a description of and alternatives to these behaviours. The types of conflict are tightly interwoven in this setting and thus the most appropriate management strategy is one that assumes that both types of conflict will exist and should be managed actively.
冲突管理已被确定为外科医生在手术室 (OR) 团队中工作的一项基本能力；然而，最佳方法尚不清楚。社会科学研究提供了两种选择，第一种建议使用解决问题的技巧来管理与任务相关的冲突，同时避免关系冲突。另一种方法主张积极管理关系冲突，因为它几乎总是伴随着与任务相关的冲突。通过更好地了解冲突转换，或者在这种特定环境下冲突类型之间的相互关系，可以更清楚地了解最佳管理策略。本研究的目的是评估 OR 团队中的冲突转换，以明确最适合外科医生教育冲突管理计划的方法。
采用建构主义扎根理论方法来探讨手术室团队冲突现象。从五个参与中心的手术室护士和外科医生焦点小组中收集了叙述。这些叙述中有一部分涉及冲突类型之间和内部的转换。对这个数据集进行了分析。
结果证实，归因错误和使用苛刻的语言会导致 OR 团队中的冲突转换，就像它们在稳定的工作团队中一样。负面情绪被发现对冲突的反应和后果有很大的贡献，特别是在个体迅速终止工作关系方面。这些发现为 OR 团队中的冲突转换理论做出了贡献。
OR 团队中有一些行为会引发冲突转换，冲突管理教育计划应包括对这些行为的描述和替代方案。在这种情况下，冲突类型紧密交织在一起，因此最合适的管理策略是假设两种类型的冲突都将存在，并应积极管理。
