by Holly Hayes The American Nurse, the official publication of the American Nurses Association, published the article The Art of Engagement: Nurses, ANA work to address conflict. Here is an excerpt: Engage in conflict? Many nurses would rather head for the hills, or at least down the hall. But at Gundersen Lutheran Health System, nurses are being asked to face conflict head on to create a better workplace and ensure safer patient care. “In general, nurses would rather avoid conflict,” said Rebecca Inglis, MSN, RN, patient education clinical practice nurse at Gundersen, located in La Crosse, WI. “So we’ve become very adept at creating and doing work-arounds.” Conflict can stem from a disagreement over a patient’s treatment plan, worker scheduling, or having differing values, for example. According to Inglis and other nurses familiar with the phenomenon, poor communication is often at the heart of conflict. And that, Inglis said, “puts patients at risk, teamwork at risk, and joy at risk.” Read the full article here. For information on nurses’ experiences with disruptive behavior in the workplace, see our post here. Holly Hayes is a mediator at Karl Bayer, Dispute Resolution Expert where she focuses on mediation of health care disputes. Holly holds a B.A. from Southern Methodist University and a Masters in Health Administration from Duke University. She can be reached at holly@karlbayer.com.

Bloomberg Law published recently an interesting article by Andrew Pincus from Mayer Brown LLP regarding the Second Circuit case In Re American Express Merchants’ Litigation, No. 06-1871-cv, (2d Cir. Feb. 1, 2012): Does the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion – holding that arbitration clauses may not be invalidated on the ground that they contain class-action waivers – apply only when the underlying cause of action is based on state law? That is what a panel of the Second Circuit concluded earlier this month in In re American Express Merchants’ Litigation, a ruling that is the subject of a pending petition for rehearing en banc. Read the full article here. Technorati Tags: ADR, law, arbitration

The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has recently issued its ICSID Caseload – Statistics for cases registered or administered by ICSID as of June 30, 2011.The document contains: the number of cases registered under the ICSID Convention and Additional Facility Rules; the number of other cases administered by the ICSID Secretariat; the basis of consent to ICSID jurisdiction invoked in registered arbitration and conciliation cases; the geographic distribution of ICSID cases by the State party to the dispute; the economic sectors involved in ICSID disputes; the outcomes in ICSID arbitration and conciliation proceedings, (including further information on disputes decided by arbitral tribunals); the nationality and geographic origins of arbitrators, conciliators and ad hoc committee members appointed in ICSID proceedings, and outcomes in annulment proceedings under the ICSID Convention. You may download the English version here. Technorati Tags: ADR, law, arbitration  

Recently, the Eastern District of Texas denied TPV defendants’ emergency motion to enjoin arbitration pending appeal. See Mondis Technology v. LG Electroncis, et al., 2:10cv216 (E.D. Tex. 2/13/12). Find Michael C. Smith’s excellent post about this case here.