Psychological safety describes people’s perceptions of the consequences of taking interpersonal risks in a particular context, such as the workplace. Quantitative and qualitative results from the business and psychology literature document its positive impacts on organizational performance, learning, and cultural change. 

Experts say psychological safety operates at the individual, group, and organizational levels. Some examples of a psychologically safe work environment are those in which employees might speak up without fear of retribution, readily admit and document their mistakes, or learn on the job without fear of punishment or humiliation. In health care, a psychologically safe environment enhances patient safety, facilitates quality improvement mechanisms, promotes learning behaviors that mitigate the negative impact of hidden curricula, and fosters greater individual well-being.

The purpose of this short essay, however, is not to focus on organizational environments, the value of teamwork, or how to cultivate specific leadership skills. My goal is to reflect for a moment on why health care providers should help their patients feel psychologically safe during each encounter. By doing this, they can help prevent patient harm, foster patient resilience, enable interprofessional collaboration, and support diagnostic excellence.

When patients feel psychologically safe, they communicate openly. They are more likely to disclose sensitive information about their medical history, symptoms, and behaviors without the fear of being judged or reprimanded. They are more likely to share results of their own research about their illness, and perhaps, view health care providers more as partners and advocates than authoritative decision-makers. Such engagement is essential to patient-centered care, which focuses on understanding and meeting patient needs and preferences. It is a significant part of the World Health Organization’s 2021-2030 Global Patient Safety Action Plan to eliminate avoidable harm in health care. 

In my experience, actions of unconditional acceptance accompanied by empathy and/or compassion also contribute to psychological safety and create an atmosphere that fosters resilience and greater patient well-being. As a “third party” other than family and friends, health care providers have a unique opportunity to affect, hopefully positively, the physical, mental, and emotional health of their patients. This includes engendering feelings of hope and optimism. Each patient-provider encounter, therefore, is potentially life-changing for the injured or ill person. By initiating or reinforcing their patient’s resilience, health care providers alter the patient-illness dynamic and contribute even more to their patient’s comfort, happiness, and sense of security.

It goes without saying that patients who feel psychologically safe are more likely to trust their health care provider’s attitudes and recommendations. They might see themselves more as active participants in decision-making processes, and as true partners in a multidisciplinary team approach to combat, control, or accept their state of health. In a psychologically safe environment, clinicians, patients, and their families can explore diagnostic or prognostic uncertainty with less trepidation, revisit initial hypotheses when clinical, laboratory, or imaging data conflict, and approach second opinions or further subspecialty referrals with greater confidence. Psychological safety thus contributes positively to interprofessional collaboration and the quest for diagnostic excellence.

Actions that help generate an environment in which patients feel psychologically safe are essential to optimizing the effects of each patient encounter with health care providers. They are separate from the organizational or systems-based changes necessary to build a psychologically safe culture for a health care facility’s physicians, students, administrators, and other employees. Because they are personal and often private, they connect the internal morality of medicine with the complex yet fragile operational realities of health care delivery. 

1. Kumar, Santhi. Psychological Safety. CHEST, 2024. Volume 165, Issue 4, 942 – 949.
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3. Global Patient Safety Action Plan. https://www.who.int/teams/integrated-health-services/patient-safety/policy/global-patient-safety-action-plan; 2021-2030. Accessed October 30, 2025.
4. Fukami T. Patient engagement with psychological safety. Dialogues Health. 2023 Sep 17;3:100153. doi: 10.1016/j.dialog.2023.100153. PMID: 38515810; PMCID: PMC10953965.