Pablo Velez, PhD, RN, and Sherry Nooravi PsyD.

Building Trusting Work Relationships in Healthcare and Beyond

Tags: behavior building trust ethical principles ethical principles in nursing ethical standards ethical values healthcare organization nursing ethics working relationship

In an effort to help leaders in various types of healthcare organizations learn how to build trust and strong work relationships within their organizations, eight chief nursing officers (CNOs) from healthcare organizations throughout California were interviewed. All the CNOs were asked the same structured questions. A review and analysis of those interviews revealed the following five dimensions as key ingredients: authenticity, work ethics, communicating and sharing news, history and reputation, and creating a supportive and empowering environment. Our results include the definitions of trust by the eight CNOs, the Four R’s of building trustworthy relationships and an acronym of SHARE. We discuss what CNOs describe as “trust blockers,” actions a CNO can take that would break the employee’s trust. The results of this research can be used in a variety of ways including incorporating them into leadership development training aiming at strengthening their personal leadership styles and improving workplace environments by creating and role modeling a more open communication culture.