In 2009, The Joint Commission issued a Sentinel Event Alert focused on adopting leadership standards to promote patient safety. A subsequent white paper provided comprehensive guidance to health care organizations around key leadership principles and topics. One element that these Joint Commission standards highlighted is the importance of a hospital’s conflict management system and continued efforts to promote effective communication and conflict resolution. This set of articles offers a strategic framework for leaders to address conflict as a key component of providing safe patient care. In part 1, the authors outline an approach to conflict (moving from conflict avoidance to engagement), the utility of a formal conflict assessment learning tool, and aligning the organizational mission to its conflict management practices. In part 2, the authors focus on designing a process for managing conflict and developing competencies for leaders to engage their leadership groups when they arise.

As the science of patient safety evolves, methods for teaching patient safety concepts are being developed as well. This article describes the development of a formal curriculum in patient safety that sought to enroll students in all health professions (medicine, nursing, pharmacy, physical/occupational therapy, dentistry, social work, and law). The course sought to communicate the basic concepts of patient safety, including the science of errors, the culture of safety, and the use of evidence to improve patient safety. The authors discuss the challenges of enrolling students from different disciplines and students' perceptions of the course.