Building Frontline Capability for Shared Decision-Making (SDM) in a Major Academic Oncology Center Caring for People...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Health Professions Education
• Patient-Centered Care

Background:

• Evidence on shared decision-making (SDM) training is growing but lacks standardization in design and evaluation.
• Significant variation exists in SDM training effectiveness across academic and practice settings.
• Integration of SDM training into clinical practice remains slow.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate changes in clinician understanding and implementation of SDM in a practice setting.
• To assess the effectiveness of a simulation-based case study role-play program for SDM training.
• To explore clinician experiences with SDM training through qualitative feedback.

Main Methods:

• A pilot study involving 6 multidisciplinary clinicians.
• Quantitative and qualitative methods, including pre- and post-intervention simulation role-plays and focus groups.
• A 2-rater criterion-based evaluation assessed 7 domains of SDM performance.

Main Results:

• Clinician performance in SDM improved by 17% to 37% across rated domains.
• Significant improvements were observed in identifying patient goals/preferences and risk tolerance (+37%).
• Enhancements were also noted in addressing patient values and self-efficacy (+37%).

Conclusions:

• The study demonstrated a significant increase in clinician awareness regarding patient goals, preferences, and values.
• Post-training, clinicians better recognized the importance of patient partnership in clinical care.
• Clinicians developed a stronger understanding of enabling active patient participation in healthcare decisions.