Assessment of medical students’ shared decision-making skills in simulated physician-patient encounters

ObjectiveTo compare shared decision-making skills of medical students who voluntarily translate medical documents into plain language with students who do not participate in this voluntary task.Methods29 medical students who voluntarily translated medical documents for patients into plain language on the online-platform https://washabich.de (WHI group) and 29 medical students who did not (non-WHI group) participated in a simulated virtual consultation hour. Via skype, participants communicated with six simulated patients. All conversations were transcribed and a blinded rater assessed them with the OPTION scale for shared decision-making.ResultsThe WHI group received significantly (p < .001) higher total scores for shared decision-making with the OPTION scale than the non-WHI group. The greatest differences in scores were found for the items “The clinician checks that the patient has understood the information.” (WHI: 2.98 ± 0.77 vs. non-WHI: 2.61 ± 0.89, p < .001) and “The clinician offers the patient explicit opportunities to ask questions during the decision-making process.” (WHI: 2.83 ± 1.00 vs. non-WHI: 2.40 ± 1.07, p < .001).ConclusionWritten translation of medical documents is associated with significantly better OPTION scores for shared decision-making in simulated physician-patient encounters.Practice ImplicationsTo use written medial translation exercises in general to improve medical students’ shared decision-making skills.