Program Highlights
Upheaval in the healthcare setting has become the norm, and will continue into the foreseeable future. Included in this are conflicts between patients and their providers, between patients, providers, and facilities, between healthcare professionals themselves, between financial and administrative personnel, between researchers and funders, and between the communities served and the organizations that serve them, to name a few. On the other hand, the healthcare leader with insight and equipped with new skills will be prepared to meet the challenges of this shifting environment.
While there are a number of ways to consider healthcare leadership in this climate of change, our program focuses upon evidence-based social science, engagement and collaborative skills, fundamentals of neuroscience, emotional and social intelligence, as well as an understanding of the fundamental concepts of conflict and how it escalates and de-escalates.
Course Descriptions
Introduction to Conflict in Healthcare Settings
This course begins with an overview of three models used to engage in conflict, all of which are directly applicable in most healthcare settings. First, participants will learn the “prevent, resolve, or contain model” for conflict engagement. Then, participants will apply their understanding of conflict and consider the constructive and destructive conflict models. The course will provide engagement through simulated exercises, role plays and class discussion. Using these methods for diagnostic thinking, participants will then learn treatment strategies and tactics appropriate to the circumstances. Particular attention will be paid to the roles of the patient, provider and organization with a special emphasis on the patient.
Engaging with Conflict in the Healthcare Workplace
The healthcare workplace is complex and constantly changing. Pressures on individual providers of care can lead to a myriad of conflicts. Many healthcare organizations struggle with provider-administration trust, physician-nurse relations, and patient satisfaction. In this course, participants will explore challenging, high stakes relationships that affect all healthcare stakeholders. Students will focus on the complex and potentially adversarial interactions among patients, providers, and organizations, with an emphasis on provider contribution. Specific problems such as bullying, burnout, disruptive behavior, nonproductive communication, and resistance to change will be addressed. Participants will develop and use a number of skills drawn from negotiation, mediation, facilitation, and executive coaching to address these and other critical healthcare conflict issues. Assigned readings will be augmented with class exercises and pertinent case studies.
The New Role of the Healthcare Leader – Managing Change, Culture and Conflict
Of all the competencies healthcare leaders will need for the present and the future, managing culture change will be among the most important. Using case studies, readings, assessments and skills practice, this course will build on the previous classes and focus on building self-awareness and identifying ways to successfully interact with others, deal with resistance to change, and fit one’s managerial style to the situation and individual. In addition, participants will learn the role Human Resources can play to help them facilitate change and align culture.
The ability to lead in healthcare organizations is a developed skill and requires self-awareness and training. Participants will consider the patient, as well as the providers, but will focus a great deal of time on the organizational challenges of the changing healthcare landscape. Self-awareness work will lead to discussion on how participants interact with others and how to fit one’s management style to the task at hand. Through specific role plays and exercises designed from a Human Resources perspective, participants will learn to adapt the organizational culture and dynamic to address the healthcare workplace today and in the future.
Our Faculty
John Potter, Clinical Assistant Professor, Southern Methodist University
John Potter, OD, MA is an active practitioner in dispute resolution and conflict management. He has mediated more than 3,000 disputes with most of those occurring in the healthcare field. In addition, Dr. Potter has worked with a number of organizations, both public and private, in conflict resolution. He received his Doctor of Optometry from Indiana University, and his Master of Arts in Dispute Resolution from Southern Methodist University and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry, and a Distinguished Clinical Scholar at the State University of New York’s State College of Optometry. Dr. Potter has been quoted in Readers Digest, the Wall Street Journal, and the Asian Wall Street Journal, as well as other national and international publications.
Format
The SMU Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Collaboration and Conflict Engagement offers a flexible graduate program to fit even the busiest healthcare leader’s schedule. Each course in the three-course cohort program is conducted over two weekends (Friday-Sunday).
Cost
For the Cost of Attendance (tuition), visit the Bursar's webpage. Participants agree to complete all three courses; however, participants will register and pay for each course during the registration period for the corresponding term.
To Apply
To begin the online application for the graduate program, visit our Apply Now page. A baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution of higher education is required. Also, you must submit official transcripts from all institutions of higher education previously attended.. A non-refundable application fee payable to SMU must be paid at submission.
Contact
If you have any questions regarding the program, please contact Jessica Lunce at jlunce@smu.edu or call 214-768-4513.
