Shared Decision Making

It is a process that fosters shared decision making that includes exploring and comparing the benefits, harms, and risks of each health care option through meaningful dialogue about what matters most to the patient. The doctor and patient need to use evidence-based information while working together to make the best possible treatment decisions.

What you will learn from this module:

1. The value of engaging patients in shared decision making about their treatment options from the beginning of treatment into end of life.
2. How to gain a patient’s trust, or lose their trust.
3. Understand why feedback from the patient in her own words is important rather than simply asking her yes or no that she understood what you have said today.
4. Her primary family caregiver, which for example may be her spouse, may be harder to build trust with than the patient is. They feel compelled to be a watch dog and research every treatment option and leave no stone unturned. This is time consuming and exhausting.
5. The patient needs to feel like they are a member of their own multidisciplinary team. You are doing treatment with her and not to her.
6. Each time there is a need for a change in her treatment regimen, a discussion about the pros and cons of these treatments need to take place.
7. It’s important to be sitting down when having this discussion and that you are sitting near the patient. Standing implies you are in a hurry. Avoid looking at your watch as this implies your time is limited for her, even if it is.