Dealing With Conflict
PA school provides many opportunities for students to test their character and develop a sense of what it means to be a professional. Recently, I have observed how conflict can be a refining fire for us.
There seem to be two general methods of dealing with a problem: the initial, emotionally-driven reaction or a careful, thought-out response. It is natural to internalize emotions when we are either hurt or have a disagreement. However, the residual effects of that internalization linger when moving forward into the professional world. The fact is that we will have disagreements with our supervising physicians, so we must learn to deal with them well.
Last year, I was elected president of my class. Part of my job is to be the liaison between the students and the faculty. Over the past year I have noticed how students can be affected by the teaching methods of our professors. A student's natural response to something about a teaching method they don't like is to grumble and complain within the confines of a student circle. My goal has been to encourage classmates to channel their feelings into constructive feedback. Most of the time, they come to realize that the problem actually lies within. However, when a problem is truly external, I have seen students come together and devise a professional approach to the matter. We may not attain the results we are looking for, but we all learn about dealing with conflict in a professional way.
Conflict is inevitable in the field of medicine. Hopefully we will always find the opportunity to carry out a professional discussion with our colleagues. The first step is to reign in that initial, emotion-driven reaction to a situation. What follows from there is up to you.