Shared decision making: skill acquisition for year III medical students

A foundation of care within a Patient-centered Medical Home (PCMH) is respect for patients' values and preferences. Shared decision making (SDM) involves a set of principles and approaches to working with patients that integrates medical information and data with the preferences, values, and support systems of individual patients facing medical decisions. The value of SDM is increasingly evidenced by the incorporation of principles of SDM into the definitions of patient-centered care and PCMHs, accountable care organizations, and the language of the Health Reform Act of 2010.

We developed and integrated a curriculum on SDM in the third-year Family Medicine Clerkship at Dartmouth Medical School. The curriculum consisted of a mix of experiential, classroom, and online experiences designed to provide students with opportunities to learn content, practice skills, and share observations from their preceptorships.

Student feedback was an important component of evaluating the SDM curriculum. Themes identified from students' reflections on their own behavior in a Simulated Patient Encounter included an increase in confidence and competence in their ability to use SDM, while noting the disconnect that may exist between what is taught in the clerkship and what they experience in their preceptorships.

As this curriculum has developed, we have acquired a deep appreciation of the benefits and challenges of attempting to teach sophisticated communication and decision-making precepts to medical students who are working to master fundamentals of clinical work and who may or may not see such precepts reinforced in practice.