Making Decisions Better: an evaluation of an educational intervention

Despite the widespread inclusion of consultation skills in undergraduate healthcare curricula, patient-doctor interactions are often an imparting of evidence or information rather than an exchange. Evidence-based practice may be further enhanced by increasing explicit understanding of decision-making processes used by healthcare professionals and patients. This exploratory investigation evaluated the impact of an educational intervention on understanding of decision-making processes and practice. The effect of session schedule was assessed to inform the future delivery strategy of such approaches.

Three groups of primary care health professionals (n = 85) completed questionnaires using Likert scales to assess strength of agreement with decision-making statements exploring four themes - Theory, Applied Theory, Practice and Joint Practice - pre-intervention and post-intervention. Responses were analysed, firstly to assess the impact of the intervention on understanding of decision-making processes and practice across all participants and then by group to determine the effect of session schedules on outcome measures.

Overall agreement with the decision-making statements significantly increased after the learning set (Mean = -0.162, SD = 0.355); t(64) = -3.666, p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis on effect of session schedule only found significant interactions for the theme 'Joint Practice' with group (p < 0.025) and 3-way interaction of Group and Main role. (p < 0.048). No consistent positive impact of longer session schedule was found.

Participation in the learning sessions significantly improved self-reported understanding of decision-making processes and application to clinical practice. The extended learning sessions did not provide additional benefits over and above 2 half days or 1 whole day learning sessions.