Shared decision making: Physicians' preferred role, usual role and their perception of its key components

To investigate physicians' preferred and usual roles in decision making in medical consultations, and their perception of shared decision making (SDM).

A cross-sectional survey of 785 physicians in a large Dutch general teaching hospital was undertaken in June 2018, assessing their preferred and usual decision making roles (Control Preference Scale), and their view on SDM key components (SDMQ9 questionnaire).

Most physicians (n = 232, 58%) preferred SDM, but more often performed paternalistic decision making (n = 121, 31%) in daily practice than they preferred (n = 80, 20%, p < 0.0001), most commonly because they judged the patient to be incapable of participating in decision making. Most physicians preferring SDM presented different options for treatment (n = 213, 92%) with their advantages and disadvantages (n = 209, 90%) but fewer made clear that a decision had to be made (n = 104, 45%) or explored the patient's wish how to be involved in decision making (n = 80, 34%).

Although most physicians prefer SDM, they often revert to a paternalistic approach and tend to limit SDM to discussing treatment options.

Teaching physicians in SDM should include raising awareness about discussing the decision process itself and help physicians to counter their tendency to revert to paternalistic decision making in daily practice.