ABSTRACT
Setting firm limits is a necessary part of clinical practice. Yet doing so is difficult for most healthcare professionals. A simple phrase—“we have to agree to disagree”—is a compassionate way of enforcing limits and transitioning the conversation to areas where the clinician and patient can be more collaborative. The effectiveness of this statement for both patients and clinicians is largely founded on its simplicity. The technique is contextualized as part of a broader approach to de-escalation in the clinician-patient relationship.
