SHARED DECISION MAKING ACADEMY

ABOUT

A Bit of Background

In 2018, the Royal College of Anaesthetists in collaboration with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges developed national peri-operative shared decision making (SDM) workshops to support improved conversations between patients and healthcare professionals. Over forty national trainers were trained in a programme partly led by Dr Ramai Santhirapala and Dr Anna Janowicz was one of the participants.

Together they led a programme at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT) as one of the first Trusts in the UK to adopt these workshops locally. The purpose of these workshops was to train multidisciplinary teams in supporting conversations which elicit patients’ values and preferences. These workshops represent a component of GSTT’s approach to ensure SDM across the Trust. The attendees ranged across those involved in peri-operative care: anaesthetists, surgeons, geriatricians, physiotherapists, nurse specialists, pharmacists and patients. Our faculty was joined by keynote speakers – Professor Alf Collins (Director for Personalised Care, NHS England), Professor Angela Bader (Vice-Chair for Peri-operative Care, Harvard Medical School) and Nadine Montgomery who gave a powerful patient perspective. Feedback from the workshops showed an increase in confidence in shared decision making and that the participants gained insights that there was a gap between current and ideal practice.

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We gained a significant momentum when the pandemic changed our plans. A very interactive face to face workshop was converted into a different format: the first virtual workshop was delivered in December 2020. It was very well received and had an added benefit of practising SDM skills via video link, which was very timely considering increasing number of e-consultations within the NHS. We are now pleased to be able to offer our expertise to healthcare professionals involved in peri-operative care across the UK.