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

OBJECTIVE: To 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.

METHODS: 29 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.

RESULTS: The 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).

CONCLUSION: Written translation of medical documents is associated with significantly better OPTION scores for shared decision-making in simulated physician-patient encounters.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: To use written medial translation exercises in general to improve medical students' shared decision-making skills.