76 | Chapter 3 well-being25. The overarching goal of most treatments is to cure patients from their malignancy, but there is often a delicate balance between extending survival and preserving QoL23, 26. Consequently, in these situations, the implementation of SDM is important to value the patients’ personal values, goals of care, needs, and preferences. Despite the fact that SDM is particularly suitable for HNC, its implementation remains insufficiently explored. This represents an essential knowledge gap, as it has been documented that HNC patients experience clinically significant decisional conflict and regret27-31, despite initially being satisfied with the treatment decision32. As such, we need to clarify two issues. First, information is lacking on the extent to which healthcare providers within HNC presently apply SDM. Second, it remains unknown to what extent head and neck (HN) healthcare providers and patients perceive SDM being employed during consultation, and how these observed and perceived levels of SDM relate to each other. Only two prior studies that have assessed SDM implementation have taken into account both the perceived level of SDM of healthcare providers and patients, while also investigating the observed level of SDM33, 34. Accordingly, with this study, we aim to explore SDM in HN oncology by (1) investigating the extent to which surgeons employ SDM in daily practice, and (2) by gaining insight into how the perceived level of SDM by surgeons and patients relates to observed SDM. Additionally, we examine patient preferences for SDM and the extent to which surgeons can properly assess them.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw