Avrum L Katcher,
Pediatrician`
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Send letter to journal:
Re: One-sided View of Conflict
estelleavrumk{at}blast.net Avrum L Katcher
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Studdert et al have surveyed how professionals at Boston Children's
Hospitals recognize and describe perceived conflicts, both among
professionals, between families and professionals, and within families,
with reference to patients in the ICU.
This group does not report similar information about conflicts recognized
and perceived by families.
Thus, they report a very one-sided point of view. Residents of the Boston
area (I am not one) will be familiar with a series of articles in the
Boston Globe providing strong evidence that families see their
relationship with staff at the hospital in question, and the care given to
their children, very differently from staff.
It is surprising that Studdert's group has not included information from
families in their report. Perhaps examination of the conceptual structures
within which they coded their data indicates a certain bias. For example,
they include under the heading of poor communication such items as
language related barriers and family problems comprehending prognosis, but
have no heading for staff inability to understand family point of view, to
mention just one of the several difficulties reported in the Boston Globe.
I could go on, but it is sufficient to conclude that Studdert et al could
have prepared a distinguished report on the nature of conflict in the ICU
had they opened both their mental horizons and their data gathering
methods. They failed to do both.
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One-sided View of Conflict
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