Duke's School of Medicine is not unique in the challenges they face, like increasingly intense work environments, a decline in professionalism, and the rise of conflict as a result of turbulence in social, political, and health spheres. “With challenges in staffing and turnover, combined with the pressure to perform, we have a very inflammable environment for conflict,” says Madhav Swaminathan, MD, Professor and Vice Chair of Faculty Affairs for Duke Anesthesiology. Duke School of Medicine is unique, however, in that they have launched a proactive program to address issues of conflict and professionalism from the ground up. The restorative justice model became their guide to improve the quality of conversations and to help faculty navigate professionalism as a concept.
As cases of professional misconduct and staff conflicts began to increase across clinical departments, Dr. Swaminathan and his colleagues recognized that the traditional policy-based top-down approach to enforcing workplace conduct was...
