Post a brief description of the situation you experienced and explain how incorporating or not incorporating patient preferences and values impacted the outcome of their treatment plan. Be specific and provide examples

Changes in culture and technology have resulted in patient populations that are often well informed and educated, even before consulting or considering a healthcare need delivered by a health professional. Fueled by this, health professionals are increasingly involving patients in treatment decisions. However, this often comes with challenges, as illnesses and treatments can become complex.

What has your experience been with patient involvement in treatment or healthcare decisions?

In this Discussion, you will share your experiences and consider the impact of patient involvement (or lack of involvement). You will also consider the use of a patient decision aid to inform best practices for patient care and healthcare decision making.

To Prepare:

• Review the Resources and reflect on a time when you experienced a patient being brought into (or not being brought into) a decision regarding their treatment plan.
• Review the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute’s Decision Aids Inventory at https://decisionaid.ohri.ca/.
  • Choose “For Specific Conditions,” then Browse an alphabetical listing of decision aids by health topic.

NOTE: To ensure compliance with HIPAA rules, please DO NOT use the patient’s real name or any information that might identify the patient or organization/practice.

DISCUSSION QUESTION:

Significance of Incorporating Patient Preferences – Sample Answer

Reflection on the Experience

The situation I experienced involved an elderly patient that was recently diagnosed with hypertension. While having a conversation with the patient about their condition, they disclosed that they had gone through the information available online, and that they had learned something about the condition. As we explored different medication options, I recommended putting the patient on a treatment plan in which I would use short-acting nifedipine.

However, the patient expressed fears that taking the medication would cause cardiac complications because they learned from the internet resources the side effects of the drug. To better work with the patient, I acknowledged the safety issues linked to nifedipine use. I also involved them in exploring their values and preferences into the healthcare plan (Guasti et al., 2022). For instance, I explained alternative medication options, describing their adverse events and benefits.

The Impact of Patient Experience on the Trajectory of the Situation

The approach I took in which I integrated into the care process the patient’s preferences helped enhance my interaction with the patient. The patient was open and free in sharing information about his health like lifestyle. In preparing the treatment plan, I considered the details the patient provided (Bilen & Wenger, 2020). Adopting this approach made the patient comfortable working with me to establish interventions centered on the patient’s needs and preferences.

The Value of the Patient Decision Aid

The Hypertension Decision Support Tool is the patient decision aid I selected. The tool provides guideline including other pertinent information related to the management of hypertension. Relying on this kind of aid, one can better understand how to deliver hypertension care to selected populations because the aid reveals efficacy of certain medications in certain populations such as women with pregnancy (Oliveros et al., 2020).

References

Bilen, O., & Wenger, N. K. (2020). Hypertension management in older adults. F1000Research, 9, F1000 Faculty Rev-1003. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.20323.1.

Guasti, L., Ambrosetti, M., Ferrari, M., Marino, F., Ferrini, M., Sudano, I., Tanda, M. L., Parrini, I., Asteggiano, R., & Cosentino, M. (2022). Management of Hypertension in the Elderly and Frail Patient. Drugs & aging, 39(10), 763–772. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40266-022-00966-7.

Oliveros, E., Patel, H., Kyung, S., Fugar, S., Goldberg, A., Madan, N., & Williams, K. A. (2020). Hypertension in older adults: Assessment, management, and challenges. Clinical cardiology, 43(2), 99–107. https://doi.org/10.1002/clc.23303.

Alternative Sample Answer

Description of the Situation I experienced

One of the encounters I have had involved working with a Chinese patient who preferred the use of acupuncture to relieve their pain. Informed by clinical practice guidelines, and clinical evidence, I incorporated the patient’s preferred pain management intervention into their treatment plan. I also relied on the information the patient provided to prepare the treatment plan (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2018). To administer the acupuncture, I involved an acupuncturist professional to perform the procedure in accordance with the patient’s preferences.

How incorporating the Patient Preferences and Values impacted the Outcomes of the Treatment Plan

By engaging the patient, and incorporating their preferences and values into the intervention plan, I managed to help them achieve optimal results in terms of clinical outcomes. By building a therapeutic relationship around patient-centered care, the patient was satisfied with their own care considering that they provided positive feedback. It also led to the decline in adverse patient events including the negative side effects associated with the use of pain medications such as nausea (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2018).

How including Patient Preferences and Values might impact the Trajectory of the Situation and how they were reflected in the Treatment Plan

For providers, incorporating patients’ values and preferences into their care might affect the outcome of the situation since they become co-partners to their own treatment. With this kind of an arrangement, they are likely to develop positive attitude towards providers, and approve of the treatment they receive. This reflected in the treatment plan considering that they provided information that was useful in coming up with a meaningful intervention plan. For instance, the patient’s pain reduced following the use of the acupuncture. Because of this outcome, they experienced improvement in their overall physiological and emotional wellbeing given that the side effects that result due to the use of pain medications can hamper emotional and physiological wellness (Zheng et al., 2018).

The Value of the selected Patient Decision Aid Inventory in Professional Practice

The selected patient decision aid is a decision-support tool for osteoarthritis of the knee. The tool is a guide that provides providers and patients with information that they can use to manage pain. For patients, this particular tool is useful if they are thinking of starting the treatment of their osteoarthritis (The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, 2019). One of the important aspects of the tool is that it can ease providers’ work because it provides them with information on how they can manage the condition.

References

Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2018). Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare: A guide to best practice (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.

The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. (2019). Patient decision aids Links to an external site.. Retrieved from https://decisionaid.ohri.ca/

Zheng, H., Rosal, M. C., Li, W., Borg, A., Yang, W., Ayers, D. C., & Franklin, P. D. (2018). A Web-Based Treatment Decision Support Tool for Patients With Advanced Knee Arthritis: Evaluation of User Interface and Content Design. JMIR human factors, 5(2), e17. https://doi.org/10.2196/humanfactors.8568.

Real-World Case Study