Rebuilding Health Workers' Trust in Healthcare Organizations
April 30, 2025 | Washington, DC
Studies show a steady decline in health workers’ trust in organizations, and this decline is significantly associated with a reduction in patient trust in clinicians. To date, most approaches to rebuilding health worker trust have emphasized individual-level interventions and support for leaders. Emerging approaches, however, highlight the importance of creating structures and processes that amplify health workers’ voices in decision-making about clinical care. This Summit examined the evidence on the problem and presented a series of case studies that may hold promise for rebuilding health workers’ trust and, by extension, patient trust.
This Summit examined the evidence on the problem and presented a series of case studies that may hold promise for rebuilding health workers’ trust and, by extension, patient trust.
This initiative on healthcare worker trust in healthcare organizations will produce a special report of the Hastings Center Report tentatively titled, “Rebuilding Healthcare Worker Trust: Lessons from the Field.” Organized the problem of healthcare workers’ feeling unsupported and let down by their leaders, managers, and peers, the issue convenes people who have implemented initiatives that have enhanced healthcare workers’ trust. The report will identify what’s necessary to understand about trust to implement effective trust rebuilding initiatives in hospitals or other healthcare settings. It will offer recommendations for how to begin.
Published by Wiley, the Hastings Center Report is a peer-reviewed bioethics journal exploring the ethical, legal, and social issues in medicine, health care, public health, and the life sciences. All pieces in this special report will be published open access.
Agenda
Opening Remarks
- Lynn Goldman, MD, MS, MPH
Michael and Lori Milken Dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health
The George Washington University - Patricia (Polly) Pittman, PhD, FAAN
Director, Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity
Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management
Milken Institute School of Public Health
The George Washington University
Keynote Speaker
- Guenevere Burke, MD, MBA
Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine and Health Sciences
Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management, Milken Institute School of Public Health
Executive Director, Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity
Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity
The George Washington University
Panel One: What Do We Know About How to Build Clinician Trust in Organizations?
- Moderator: Carolyn Neuhaus, PhD, The Hastings Center
- Panelists:
- Jodyn Platt, PhD, MPH, University of Michigan
- Alden Lai, PhD, MPH, NYU School of Global Public Health
- Lindsay Martin, MSPH, Innovation Capital
- Hannah Fairley, MD, GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences
Panel 2: Solutions – What’s Been Done? What Direction Do We Take Next?
- Moderator: Randl Dent, PhD, ABIM Foundation
- Panelists:
- William Erickson, MPH, UMass Memorial Health
Amy Locke, MD, FAAFP, University of Utah - Amelie Roux, MPP, Hospices Civils de Lyon (France)
- Cynda Rushton, PhD, MSN, RN, FAAN, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing
- Corey Feist, JD, MBA, Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation
- William Erickson, MPH, UMass Memorial Health