Three insights, two programs, one theory: Transformative practices as opportunities for moral growth in the healthcare workplace

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21263
• Author: Barbara J. Solarz,Angie Gaspar
• Date: 01 September 2019
• Published date: 01 September 2019

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Three insights, two programs, one theory:

Transformative practices as opportunities for moral

growth in the healthcare workplace

Barbara J. Solarz

1

| Angie Gaspar

2

1

Workplace Conflict Resolution Program,

Nova Scotia Health Authority, Halifax,

Nova Scotia, Canada

2

Staff Counselling, Stress Management and

Conflict Resolution, Imperial College

Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK

Correspondence

Barbara J. Solarz, Workplace Conflict

Resolution Program, Nova Scotia Health

Authority, 1276 South Park Street, Halifax

NS B3H 2Y9, Canada.

Email: Basia.Solarz@nshealth.ca

Abstract

Increasing demands on healthcare systems and complex

pressures within healthcare settings create the conditions

for workplace conflict; this inevitably has a detrimental

impact on patient care and worker morale. We present two

case studies illustrating how training and conflict coaching

premised on the transformative model reduced organiza-

tional costs, increased employee engagement, and restored

healthcare workers' ability to care for patients. Transfor-

mative theory and insights, which center on increasing

awareness and development of one's moral identity, prove

to be especially well-suited to the healthcare workplace

where caring for others is of primary concern.

1|CONTEXT

Healthcare is a highly challenging environment with healthcare workers reporting more than any

other employee group that their jobs are highly stressful (Wilkins, 2007). Every day, individuals

working in this environment are expected to deal with the differing stresses of caring for others with

acute injuries and conditions as well as chronic and terminal illnesses. The constant exposure to the

suffering of others and the sometimes inability to eliminate or reduce it can result in empathic dis-

tress, which has implications for standards of patient care as well as negative impacts on a worker's

mental and physical well-being (Cocker & Joss, 2016). Like policing and aviation, healthcare is a

high stakes workplace, where decisions made in error could worsen a person's health status or even

result in their untimely death.

In both the United Kingdom and Canada, the social safety net that provides healthcare to all citi-

zens is challenged on multiple fronts. Both countries are struggling to care for an aging population as

well as increasing numbers of patients with chronic multiple morbidities (Sambamoorthi, Tan, &

Deb, 2015; Vogeli et al., 2007), whose predictably higher demand for healthcare services is being

Received: 31 October 2018 Revised: 2 May 2019 Accepted: 14 June 2019

DOI: 10.1002/crq.21263

Conflict Resolution Quarterly. 2019;37:67–78. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/crq © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 67