Why Cultural Assessments Are Vital for the Healthcare and Public Health Workforce—Now More Than Ever

Healthcare and public health organizations are under unprecedented pressure. From workforce shortages and burnout to evershifting policy changes and ongoing public trust challenges, the environment is volatile—and deeply human. In this context, technical solutions alone are not enough. What’s needed is a deeper understanding of the people at the center of the system: how they work, lead, and experience their organizational culture.

Proximate Learning recognizes this urgent need. Through its tailored cultural assessment framework, Proximate Learning is helping healthcare systems, public health departments, and mission-driven nonprofits uncover the internal dynamics that shape workforce resilience, equity, and effectiveness. Our assessments focus on three critical areas: Employee Engagement, Leadership Effectiveness, and Organizational Culture.

Employee Engagement: Rebuilding Connection and Purpose

In healthcare and public health, engagement is more than job satisfaction—it’s about purpose, trust, and emotional sustainability. After years of crisis response, many frontline and administrative teams are struggling with fatigue, disconnection, and questions about whether their work is valued.

Proximate Learning uses nuanced engagement assessments specifically adapted for the healthcare and public service context. These tools help leaders understand what drives (or erodes) morale, communication, psychological safety, and mission alignment.

Instead of generalized metrics, Proximate Learning provides actionable insights tied directly to the unique realities of healthcare work—such as cross-functional team tension, compassion fatigue, and the impact of system-wide inequities. The result is a clearer path to rebuilding team cohesion and re-energizing staff around a shared mission.

Leadership Effectiveness & 360 Reviews: Supporting Leaders Under Pressure

Leadership in healthcare and public health is both high-stakes and highly visible. But traditional leadership development often fails to address the complexities of navigating bureaucracy, trauma, and diverse community needs.

Proximate Learning provides 360-degree leadership assessments that offer compassionate yet candid feedback from across the organization—peers, team members, supervisors, and collaborators. These assessments are designed to foster reflection and growth in areas such as communication, equity-minded leadership, team development, and systems thinking.

In 2024, Proximate Learning successfully partnered with a large nonprofit healthcare system to realign its executive and director-level 360-degree leadership process into a growth-focused opportunity centered on succession planning. What began as a routine performance review evolved into a strategic intervention that not only improved leadership self-awareness but also helped the organization identify and prepare its next generation of leaders. This project underscored how 360 assessments, when thoughtfully facilitated, can be powerful tools for organizational continuity and long-term capacity building.

Organizational Culture: Diagnosing What’s Unspoken but Deeply Felt

Culture in healthcare and public health systems is complex. It’s influenced by hierarchy, regulatory pressures, social dynamics, history, values, and longstanding professional norms. When culture is misaligned or unexamined, it can quietly undermine even the best strategy.

Proximate Learning’s cultural assessments go beneath the surface to understand how values, power dynamics, and informal behaviors shape the employee experience. These tools help organizations identify the root causes of issues like burnout, siloed decision-making, and inequity—and chart a path toward cultural change.

In many cases, these assessments also support equity and inclusion efforts, ensuring that organizations aren’t just checking boxes but making meaningful progress toward equity and inclusion at all levels.

Meeting the Moment: Culture as a Core Strategy

Today’s healthcare and public health leaders face enormous complexity—and yet, culture remains one of the few levers that can drive systemic change from the inside out. Proximate Learning doesn’t offer one-size-fits-all solutions. Instead, we partner with organizations to create a culture change roadmap grounded in evidence, empathy, and local context.

By using cultural assessments as both a mirror and a catalyst, Proximate Learning helps organizations do more than survive. They help them listen better, lead better, and ultimately serve better—because thriving staff and strong leadership are essential for delivering equitable, effective care.

If your healthcare or public health organization is facing burnout, mistrust, turnover, or culture drift, it’s not a sign of failure—it’s a signal. And with the right insights, it can be a turning point.

Proximate Learning’s approach to cultural assessment is more than diagnostics. It’s about reconnecting people to purpose, healing organizational fractures, and building a workforce ready to meet today’s challenges with humanity and strength.