Patients' Trust and Distrust in Primary Care

Several of my participants revealed that they have at least a little difficulty trusting their doctor or information given to them by their doctor.

TRUST

Robert

Robert trusts information from his pharmacist about his medication because "they're knowledgeable about it." However, he feels the doctors have "more experience with [diseases] than a pharmacist would." He used a photo of his hypothyroidism medication to represent the trust he has in his pharmacist.

DISTRUST

Cody

Cody had trouble trusting his doctor after he did not explain what the prescribed medication treated. His doctor also did not give Cody the necessary information to properly treat his disease, such as refilling a prescription and telling him his diagnosis.

These are words that I first heard from the doctor today. Meanwhile, my friend who's not even graduated nursing school yet knew that I was diabetic based on what I was taking for it.