The Difficult Family: Conflict Resolution in Healthcare Settings N603

Course Summary

In healthcare practice, encounters with families can sometimes move from supportive collaboration to emotionally charged conflict, whether due to differing expectations, miscommunication, cultural values, prior experiences, or systemic strain. Unresolved family-team conflict carries consequences for patients, clinicians, and organizations, including delayed care decisions, moral distress, burnout, staff turnover, and erosion of trust. This course examines the roots and consequences of family-team conflict, evidence-based strategies for engaging families, a structured approach to high-stakes family meetings, the role of self-reflection and professional conduct, and implications for nursing practice and interprofessional teams in transforming conflict into collaboration.

Course Format

Homestudy

Course Syllabus

• Introduction
  • Roots of Family Conflict in Healthcare Settings
  • Consequences of Unresolved Family-Team Conflict
  • Evidence-Based Strategies for Engaging Families and Resolving Conflict
  • Structured Approach to a High-Stakes Family Meeting
  • Self-Reflection and Professional Conduct
  • Barriers and Special Considerations
  • Case Study: Elderly Female with Congestive Heart Failure
  • Implications for Nursing Practice and Interprofessional Teams
  • Key Takeaway Points

Authors

Sarah Schulze, MSN, APRN, CPNP

Sarah Schulze is a board certified pediatric nurse practitioner and professional medical content writer. She earned her BSN from Indiana State University and her MSN from University of Illinois at Chicago. In clinical practice as an RN and NP, she has experience in a variety of settings; including critical care, PACU, pediatrics, mental health, and lactation support. She currently owns and operates a private practice providing outpatient mental health services to children and adolescents. As a writer, she has developed content for many CEU courses, medical apps, health education curricula, NCLEX study materials, health blogs, and more.

William Cook, PhD

William Cook, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist who worked for 15 years in private practice in Montana before leaving his practice to work full time as the Director of CE4Less. He earned his doctorate degree from Texas A&M University, and focused much of his psychology practice in the area of child and family counseling, as well as psychological testing. Dr. Cook likes new challenges, foreign traveling to Africa and areas of Europe and the near East, scuba diving, running, music, and spending time with his family.