Conflict Management and Team Development in the Healthcare Sector. Healthcare System in Nigeria

Academic Paper from the year 2021 in the subject Health - Health system, grade: A2, Obafemi Awolowo University, language: English, abstract: This paper spotlights several empirical thoughts on team development and conflict management in relation to the Nigerian healthcare setting. The subject of conflict is gaining more interest among stakeholders in all spheres of life. There's been various perspectives owing to the roles often played by conflicts at the national and international levels. The focus of this work; however, is limited to conflicts within an organization - specifically the healthcare organization in Nigeria.

Team development has been studied and characterized by organizational theorists and administrators as it concerns organizational performance. In the healthcare setting, maintaining highly functional teams has been advocated for many reasons including (a) the prevention of avoidable adverse events partly due to inadequacy of communication channels among clinicians. (b) The avoidance of unnecessary waste and cost due to a lack of clarity in purpose. (c) Decreasing the risk of medical errors as a result of the incompetence among the team of healthcare professionals.

In the Nigerian context, experts have also identified some barriers to effective team development. The Nigerian healthcare sector has perennially suffered from the outcomes of conflicts among various stakeholders that make up the overall healthcare system. In view of these negative consequences of such conflicts (for example industrial action leading to termination of healthcare services every year); there's been a rise in the phenomenon of medical tourism among certain privileged segments of the Nigerian society, leaving the majority of the population vulnerable.