Effective Conflict Resolution in Healthcare: Enhancing Teamwork, Patient Care, and Workplace Satisfaction

Conflict management in healthcare is an important issue impacting patient care and 25-40% of healthcare professionals’ time is spent on work-related conflicts. Multidisciplinary care teams involving physicians, nurses, therapists, and administrators work together across high-pressure clinical environments under challenging time and resource limitations to achieve effective patient care with unresolved conflicts impinging on patient safety. This study is a systematic review of the literature through peer-reviewed databases PubMed, Scopus, and PsycINFO. Key themes emerged on emotional intelligence in leadership-structured protocols for conflict resolution and team-building initiatives collectively demonstrating effective conflict management strategies to reduce medical errors by up to 30% and increase staff satisfaction by 45%. These findings give healthcare organizations evidence-based approaches to improve patient outcomes while reducing turnover costs. Further studies can include quantitative investigations based on the relationship between specific conflict management strategies and patient safety measures and qualitative phenomenological studies on the lived experiences of healthcare leaders in implementing different approaches to conflict resolution.