ABSTRACT
Knowledge management and healthcare delivery are complex, interdependent processes. A deeper awareness of the relationship between tacit knowledge and healthcare can foster opportunities to develop and implement strategies to improve safety and quality. Gathering these perspectives through conversation can serve as a useful first step to understand how or whether tacit knowledge sharing is understood in the hospital environment. The process and results of the interviews undertaken on this topic serve as a proof of concept, with the hope that the findings will spur further development of knowledge management study methodologies in healthcare. Interviewing knowledge workers with differing professional backgrounds can illustrate the varied ways in which these individuals and their established roles can support knowledge sharing initiatives. Discussions sought to identify knowledge sharing roles, attitudes and behaviors to support and to clarify assumptions held by the authors. Insights will inform future explorations of how a knowledge sharing culture can be embedded into an organization.
