Kontakt 2018, 20(3):e262-e272 | DOI: 10.1016/j.kontakt.2018.04.002

Resistance of health personnel to changes in healthcareNursing - Review article

Jiří Mareš*
Univerzita Karlova, Lékařská fakulta v Hradci Králové, Ústav sociálního lékařství, Hradec Králové, Česká republika

This study is based on scientific literature in the fields of health, management, sociology and psychology. It notes that the implementation of changes in healthcare (from major conceptual changes to changes at the level of a particular workplace) usually results in objections on the part of health personnel. The study is structured into six parts. The first part describes the difficulties associated with defining the term "resistance to change". It also provides an overview of different types of resistance to change. The second part illustrates the general concept of resistance to change by means of examples from the area of health care. It also introduces conceptual changes to the healthcare system, changes in IT use, changes in nursing, and organizational changes within an institution. The third part is devoted to three theoretical models: the three-dimensional model of change (Pettigrew), the cyclical concept of the four phases of change (Lawrence), and the psychological model of experiencing change by an individual (a modification of the Kübler-Ross five stage model). The fourth part gives an overview of factors that (according to the results of previous research) contribute to the resistance of health personnel to change. The fifth part focuses on methods used to diagnose the resistance to change, and presents basic information about ten questionnaires used for this purpose. The sixth (and final part) points out that the critical attitudes of health personnel to change do not fully reject it. The workers' attitudes and behaviour are rather ambivalent with a tendency to change over time, but they may also have a positive function: they maintain the stability of the system; preventing superficial, ill-conceived changes and uncritically accepted innovations. If management listens to workers' opinions, they can initiate a thorough debate and can provide stimuli to improve the original form of change. Seriously conceived resistance to change can alter the change for the better.

Keywords: Change; Resistance to change; Hospitals; Health personnel; Theories of change; Assessment

Received: February 9, 2018; Accepted: April 5, 2018; Published: October 12, 2018  Show citation

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Mareš J. Resistance of health personnel to changes in healthcare. Kontakt. 2018;20(3):e262-272. doi: 10.1016/j.kontakt.2018.04.002.
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