Heart of Safety Coalition
Humans at the heart of healthcare: Why care team safety matters – Liz Boehm
09.08.2026
Healthcare is built on science, technology, systems and processes, but at the heart of healthcare are humans. For more than three decades, Liz Boehm has studied healthcare organizations, spent hundreds of hours inside hospitals and spoken with thousands of clinicians and healthcare leaders. Across those experiences, one conclusion has remained constant: patient safety starts with care team safety.
In this milestone episode of Caring Greatly, Liz turns the microphone, and camera, on herself to share some experiences that have shaped her work and her belief in creating safer, more human-centered healthcare environments. She reflects on growing up across cultures, working in a rural health center with the Peace Corps, building a career in healthcare research and listening to hundreds of clinicians and other care team memberso describe the realities of burnout, moral injury, wellbeing and organizational change.
Liz also shares the stories that have stayed with her, from a physician who rediscovered his love of medicine by reconnecting with his values, to a nursing ethicist who challenged her to think differently about what organizational budgets reveal, to a bedside nurse using Heart of Safety Coalition resources to bring Code Lavender to her own team. Together, these experiences demonstrate that meaningful change can come from leaders at every level of an organization, with or without formal authority.
As Caring Greatly enters its next chapter and adds video after seven years as an audio-only podcast, its purpose remains the same: to amplify voices that advance psychological and emotional safety, dignity and inclusion, and physical safety for those who work in healthcare.
Liz Boehm is Executive Strategist of the Heart of Safety Coalition and host of the Caring Greatly podcast. Her work has spanned healthcare research, strategy and care team safety, with a focus on identifying and sharing the practices that make healthcare safer and more sustainable for the people delivering care.
Liz Boehm is a leader who cares greatly.
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