Discussion: Patient Preferences and Decision Making

Discussion: Patient Preferences and Decision Making

Three months ago, I had an experience with a 30-year-old female patient who reported in the inpatient cancer treatment facility where I was working as a charge nurse. The patient had breast cancer that had become too severe, leading to chronic pain. After the diagnosis, the patient was incorporated into developing the treatment plan. She was presented with two treatment options for her condition, including mastectomy and breast-conserving surgery as provided in the Decision Aid tool for breast cancer (Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, 2019). According to the patient’s preferences, she opted for removing the breast, which the attending doctor had to respect.

However, during the initiation of the treatment plan, the patient preferred that she be assigned a female caregiver due to her Islamic culture, which the medical team gladly accommodated in the plan. This is because respecting her care preference means that she would comply with the treatment plan. Hence, the patient always remained receptive to the treatment she underwent, ensuring that her anxiety about the type she would receive was eliminated because her preferences were well taken care of throughou

t the treatment (Mathioudakis et a., 2019). As a result, the treatment was carried out smoothly.

In terms of Decision Aid (DA) selection, it is essential to consider other aspects, such as post-surgical treatments and care as the patient wishes, keeping in her preference to have a female caregiver. Therefore, the application of Evidence-based medicine (EBM) and shared decision making (SDM) would be an appropriate Decision Aid for the patient. The importance of using the DA is that it ensures that the treatment begins and ends with the patient while also focusing on other aspects, such as modesty and self-awareness of the care procedures (Simons et al., 2019).

Applying the DA inventory would be appropriate for my professional practice since it offers a wealth of information on all aspects of clinical care to promote the development of more informed interventions to help address patient conditions. Evidence-based medicine would be a critical tool for my practices because it

Discussion Patient Preferences and Decision Making

integrates all the care need that a patient may require. This, in turn, can facilitate proper decision-making on what can work best for the patient.

References

Mathioudakis, A. G., Salakari, M., Pylkkanen, L., Saz‐Parkinson, Z., Bramesfeld, A., Deandrea, S., … & Alonso‐Coello, P. (2019). Systematic review on women’s values and preferences concerning breast cancer screening and diagnostic services. Psycho‐Oncology, 28(5), 939-947.

Simons, M. R., Zurynski, Y., Cullis, J., Morgan, M. K., & Davidson, A. S. (2019). Does evidence-based medicine training improve doctors’ knowledge, practice and patient outcomes? A systematic review of the evidence. Medical teacher, 41(5), 532-538.