From discussing “taking away the keys to the car” for a cognitively impaired older adult to decisions to limit life sustaining treatments at the end of life, conflict and disagreement permeate everything that we do in medicine.  How well though are we taught to handle conflict and disagreement?  I’d say not well as I don’t think I’ve ever received a formal talk on the issue.

On today’s podcast we take a deep dive into the topic of Negotiation and Dispute Resolution training with Lee Lindquist and Alaine Murawski.   We’ve had Lee on before to talk about her Plan your Lifespan project.  We invited her back along with Alaine to talk about their work around negotiation training, including their work on NegotiAge, an online, AI based training intervention designed to teach negotiation skills to caregivers.

For an ever deeper dive into the subject of negotiation and dispute resolution, check out the following links (and for any caregivers interested in participating in the randomized clinical trial of the NegotiAge training, feel free email the NegotiAge Research Team at [email protected]): 

• Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving In by Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton
• Getting Past No: Negotiating in Difficult Situations by William Ury
• Negotiation Training for Case Managers to Improve Older Adult Acceptance of Services. Prof Case Manag. 2021 
• Training Hospitalists in Negotiations to Address Conflicts with Older Adults around Their Social Needs. Geriatrics. 2020 
• Conflicts Experienced by Caregivers of Older Adults With the Health-Care System. Journal of Patient Experience. December 2020
• Dealing with conflict in caring for the seriously ill: "it was just out of the question".  JAMA 2005