The clinical application of shared decision-making in emergency surgery: a scoping review protocol

Shared decision-making (SDM) between clinicians and patients is considered 'best practice'. There is limited evidence regarding SDM in surgery, particularly in the emergency setting. Emergency SDM may be particularly challenging due to: time pressures, the patient's underlying condition and the nature of the patient-surgeon interaction. However, emergency surgery arguably has a greater need for SDM due to the likelihood of disparate outcomes from intervention, which is dependent on the various treatment options available. This is necessary for patients to make informed decisions regarding their treatment of surgical pathology. The primary objective of this scoping review is to understand the extent and type of evidence in relation to SDM in emergency surgery to determine methods for improving SDM.

Any studies reporting SDM in emergency surgery on adult patients (age >18 years) will be included. EMBASE, Medline, Cochrane, CINAHL and Scopus databases will be searched for articles with no language or date limits. Studies will be screened by two independent reviewers, with consensus met prior to data extraction. Data extracted to include study design, details of study population, tools used to measure SDM, prevalence of SDM and barriers and enablers for SDM.A systematic narrative synthesis will be performed following JBI (Joanna Briggs Institute) guidance. These will summarise findings of included studies. The findings may inform future research into facilitating implementation of SDM in emergency surgery.

This study does not require ethical approval. Final findings will be submitted for peer-reviewed publication and presentation at surgical conferences.