Teaching and Assessing Decision-making Skills

Abstract

Some aspects of health care are rather routine and involve very little decision making. For example, measuring blood pressure or administering a vaccine are fairly standard procedures which are usually followed through in the same sequence time after time. But these are fairly unusual. Nearly all health care involves decision making. Even these examples of routine procedures require health workers to make decisions from time to time. Suppose that the patient’s blood pressure is high. What should the health worker do? Should the patient be told, and if so, how much should be said?