Managing conflict when there’s disagreement in care between medical providers, caregivers, and patient

Abstract

The medical care of children with life-threatening and life-limiting illness is a crucible containing many volatile issues and complicated circumstances that predictably provoke conflict between well-meaning people. This chapter will review the prototypical types of conflicts that occur in the practice of pediatric hematology/oncology and propose methods of managing these conflicts that hinge on established ethical principles and disciplined reasoning. We draw on the broader field of conflict management for an empirically grounded understanding of conflict and conflict resolution strategies.