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Published on: February 16, 2011
Patient decision-making behavior: an emerging paradigm for nursing science
1School of Nursing, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48109-0482, USA.
Background:
As healthcare technology and medical therapies proliferate, healthcare providers have more options to offer and patients have more options from which to choose. Active patient participation in healthcare decision making is a relatively new phenomenon that has been born of sociocultural, ethical, and legal influences. Patients, however, often find healthcare decisions bewildering, stressful, and anxiety-provoking.
Objectives:
The purpose of this review is to provide a framework for those interested in pursuing patient decision-making investigations and suggest ways in which current knowledge can be extended to develop a scientific platform upon which to build decision support interventions.
Method:
Literature review.
Discussion:
This review (a) provides a context for understanding patient decision making; (b) explicates the state of the science of patient decision making; (c) identifies significant theoretical, methodological, and measurement issues; and, (d) identifies gaps in patient decision-making knowledge and propose areas for further investigation.
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