Shared decision making

Excerpt

This guideline covers how to make shared decision making part of everyday care in all healthcare settings. It promotes ways for healthcare professionals and people using services to work together to make decisions about treatment and care. It includes recommendations on training, communicating risks, benefits and consequences, using decision aids, and how to embed shared decision making in organisational culture and practices.

The guideline does not cover unexpected emergencies in which immediate life-saving care is needed. It also does not cover situations when, at the time a decision needs to be made, an adult does not have mental capacity to make a decision about their healthcare. For more information, see the NICE guideline on decision-making and mental capacity.

Who is it for?:

1. Everybody who delivers healthcare services

2. Commissioners of health and public health services

3. Adults (aged 18 and over) using healthcare services, their families, carers and advocates, and the public

It may also be relevant for:

1. Social care practitioners

2. Voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations

3. People who use social care services