RESEARCH ARTICLE
Consideration of Shared Decision Making in Nursing: A Review of Clinicians’ Perceptions and Interventions
Noreen M. Clark*, 1, Belinda W. Nelson2, Melissa A. Valerio3, Z. Molly Gong4, Judith C. Taylor-Fishwick5, Monica Fletcher6
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2009Volume: 3
First Page: 65
Last Page: 75
Publisher ID: TONURSJ-3-65
DOI: 10.2174/1874434600903010065
PMID: 19855848
PMCID: PMC2765030
Article History:
Received Date: 3/6/2009Revision Received Date: 4/9/2009
Acceptance Date: 4/9/2009
Electronic publication date: 2/10/2009
Collection year: 2009

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
As the number of individuals with chronic illness increases so has the need for strategies to enable nurses to engage them effectively in daily management of their conditions. Shared decision making between patients and nurses is one approach frequently discussed in the literature. This paper reviews recent studies of shared decision making and the meaning of findings for the nurse-patient relationship. Patients likely to prefer to engage in shared decision making are younger and have higher levels of education. However, there is a lack of evidence for the effect of shared decision making on patient outcomes. Further, studies are needed to examine shared decision making when the patient is a child. Nurses are professionally suited to engage their patients fully in treatment plans. More evidence for how shared decision making affects outcomes and how nurses can successfully achieve such engagement is needed.