Purpose: Treatment decisions involve informed consent and Shared Decision Making (SDM). SDM, a collaborative process between healthcare professionals and patients, ensures optimal treatment plans. Since clinical engineers participate in SDM teams, their understanding is crucial for effective patient choice. While informed consent is usually covered in training, SDM is often lacking, limiting learning opportunities. At our institution, SDM is briefly mentioned in a nursing course, but students struggle to differentiate it from informed consent. This study investigates effective SDM education for clinical engineering students.
Methods: Ten third-year students participated. Following a brief SDM lecture, students engaged in 10-minute role-playing exercises (clinical engineer/patient roles) using materials from the Renal Disease SDM Promotion Association. Post-role-play checklists assessed SDM performance.
Results: SDM requires comparing treatment options. While 9/10 students demonstrated adequate comparison and explanation of options in the role-play, only 3/10 explained them clearly. Student feedback highlighted difficulties eliciting patient feelings and facilitating patient-centered discussions.
Conclusion: Role-playing allowed students to consider effective SDM questioning and explanation techniques. Instructors gained insights into student challenges, informing future lectures. Role-playing proved useful for enhancing SDM understanding.
