Trust

The uncertainties, unpredictability’s, and complexities inherent in health care means that trust is a key element and strategy in its effective provision across many national systems and organisational and clinical settings. It incorporates a number of different dimensions – such as macro-level policies, inter-professional cooperation and professional/patient encounters. Trust relations are significant in shaping and facilitating interactions and transactions between patients and professionals, amongst professionals, between professionals and managers and at the system or institutional level. This entry considers the salience and nature of trust relations at these different levels of the health system and the way they might interrelate and shape one another.