Shared decision making (SDM) is a treatment decision model that has been incorporated in many nations. It is viewed as a collaborative process between patients and clinicians in which medical evidence, providers’ expertise, and the values, preferences, and context of patients are used to develop tailored treatment decisions for an individual patient. Despite the increased importance attached to SDM, no unified definition exists according to investigators in an article published in the July 2024 issue of the journal Patient Education and Counseling. Nonetheless, multiple SDM models have been developed for various health care settings, describing in successive steps how the approach should be performed in clinical practice. SDM can be considered a service, with underlying values facilitating a particular type of communication regarding treatment decision making between clinicians and patients and their relatives. References to explicit values underlying SDM are seldom made. Yet, these researchers note that the identification of SDM’s underlying values would enable a comparison with the values of its users and can therefore contribute to the alignment of both.
Schwartz’s value theory was employed in this study because it is well grounded in empirical research, comprehensive in included value types, and used in numerous studies, including more recently in studying patients’ and health professionals’ values in decision making. The theory has not been applied to SDM yet to the best of their knowledge. They aimed to construct a value structure characterizing SDM that may be used to compare it with those of specific groups using SDM, and to incorporate patients’ values into treatment decision making. They sought to identify how values manifest in scientific articles that describe SDM models and provide an overview of how the identified values of SDM models interrelate. They concluded that the study unraveled the value structure underlying SDM and shows that SDM can be realized through an interplay of various values. The value structure shows that besides knowledge and skills, support, and a good relationship with health professionals. it also enables patients’ Achievement and Self-Direction and facilitates Universalism.