Short summary

As a specialist hospital within the cancer area, the staff at Vejle Hospital focus on involving the patient and their family in the treatment process. In this project, a shared decision support tool is being developed that can be used in conversations about nutrition. Then the tool is tested and it is investigated whether this has contributed to increased involvement in shared decision

Rationale

Currently, there is great attention from several sides within the healthcare system to involve the patient in the decision of their own treatment, ie shared decision-making. Shared decision-making is well described when it comes to taking a position on medical treatment, while how joint decision-making takes place within nursing is largely not described. The purpose of this project is therefore to create knowledge about how shared decision-making in nursing takes place as well as to develop a shared decision support tool that can be used for patients who have nutritional challenges during their treatment for cancer.

In order to uncover the extent to which shared decision-making takes place today in nursing at Oncology departments at Vejle Hospital, an observational study was carried out which confirmed that shared decision-making takes place in different ways, but that this does not take place in a systematic way.

Therefore, it is relevant to investigate whether shared decisions about the patient's nutritional challenges could be qualified using a decision support tool.

The aim is:

- to create knowledge about how shared

decision-making about patients' nutrition takes place in oncological nursing

- to create knowledge about which elements are important for patients when they have to be involved in joint decision-making on nutrition

- to develop a decision support tool that can be used in conversations about nutrition between the patient in medical cancer treatment and the nurse

- to test the developed decision support tool

- to uncover how patients and nurses experience the use of decision support tools when deciding on the patient's dietary guidance during medical cancer treatment - and whether this has contributed to increased involvement in shared decision-making

As the purpose of the project is to describe, understand and evaluate, a qualitative design is chosen. Field observations and ethnographic interviews are used to collect data. Approximately 15 field observations are made with a focus on shared decision-making in conversational situations between nurse and patient in conversational situations. Passive participation is used where the researcher has a withdrawn and exclusively observational position and in line with the ideal of examining the world as it appears. The field observations are followed up by ethnographic interviews with the patient and relatives for elaboration and understanding of the situation. Finally, nurses will be asked about their experiences using the shared decision-making tool. This will be done through an electronic language form.

Description of the cohort

Patients who are being treated for lung cancer at the oncology ward at Vejle Hospital.

Data and biological material

field observations, anthropological interviews, questionnaire survey

Collaborating researchers and departments

Department pf Applied Health Research, University College Lillebaelt

• Associate Professor Randi Dam Schmidt
• Associate Professor Lene Bomholt Højgaard

Publications associated with the project

Department of Oncology, Vejle Hospital, Lillebælt Hospital (SLB)

• Clinical Nursing Specialist Hrønn Thorn

The Department of Applied Health Research, University College Lillebælt (UCL) 

• Associate Professor Randi Dam Schmidt