Conflicts & Complaints in Healthcare
At some point in every professional’s life, conflicts occur — with patients, patients’ relatives or colleagues. These are avoidable if healthcare professionals are given the right skills to manage confrontation successfully, and to help them through inevitable tensions and difficulties.
This course provides a thought-provoking and challenging experience of dealing with conflicts and compaints. It increases the ability to build efficient and enjoyable working relationships with colleagues across disciplines in healthcare, and with patients, even in difficult circumstances.
Attending this course will give a radical new perspective on communication, building on existing strengths, challenging unhelpful habits and providing solid skills to take back into work.
Course Aims:
- To improve doctors’ generic skills in communication and professional behaviour
- To understand the nature of conflicts and complaints, and how to resolve them
- To enhance doctors’ ability to maintain harmonious multi-disciplinary teams
- To contribute to patient care through successful, clear and empathic communication
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand the nature of conflict
- Notice when communication breakdown is likely to, or has already, occurred — and establish a positive connection once difficulties have arisen
- Achieve collaboration while getting your message across honestly
- Hear difficult messages from others while standing your own ground
- Practise empathy and active listening in challenging situations, and judge successfully when to advise, educate and determine strategy
- Foster appreciation and trust across boundaries, while acknowledging different needs and temperaments
- Deal with challenging emotions in yourself and others
- Express appreciation, while staying genuine and real
The graph shows a typical assessment by doctors of their experience of the course.

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