Subjectivity in Entrustment Decision-Making in the Clinical Workplace: Can We Retain Its Legitimacy But Avoid Bias?

After decades of emphasis on objectivity in assessment, the awareness of the significance of expert judgment in the clinical workplace has led scholars to acknowledge the value of subjectivity in such assessment. With the advent of entrustment-focused assessment, validity questions led us to examine subjectivity as a construct and to explore the role of bias within expert judgment. In this commentary, the authors propose a conceptual model of subjectivity that distinguishes implicit and explicit bias, as well as systemic and individual-focused bias, not to provide solutions to abandon bias, but to raise awareness of its conceptual role in entrustment decisions.