Shared decision-making at the end of life: A focus group study exploring the perceptions and experiences of multi-disciplinary healthcare professionals working in the home setting
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online January, 2018
Shared decision-making at the end of life: A focus group study exploring the perceptions and experiences of multi-disciplinary healthcare professionals working in the home setting
Globally recommended in healthcare policy, Shared Decision-Making is also central to international policy promoting community palliative care. Yet realities of implementation by multi-disciplinary healthcare professionals who provide end-of-life care in the home are unclear.
Aim:
To explore multi-disciplinary healthcare professionals’ perceptions and experiences of Shared Decision-Making at end of life in the home.
Design:
Qualitative design using focus groups, transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically.
Setting/participants:
A total of 43 participants, from multi-disciplinary community-based services in one region of the United Kingdom, were recruited.
Results:
While the rhetoric of Shared Decision-Making was recognised, its implementation was impacted by several interconnecting factors, including (1) conceptual confusion regarding Shared Decision-Making, (2) uncertainty in the process and (3) organisational factors which impeded Shared Decision-Making.
Conclusion:
Multiple interacting factors influence implementation of Shared Decision-Making by professionals working in complex community settings at the end of life. Moving from rhetoric to reality requires future work exploring the realities of Shared Decision-Making practice at individual, process and systems levels.
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