About us
Decision coaching is non-directive support delivered by a healthcare provider to help patients prepare to actively participate in making a health decision. Given that training in decision coaching skills is not part of usual healthcare providers’ educational programs, there is training in decision coaching and protocols to guide people in providing decision coaching. Our SIG is focused on supporting research and building capacity in the use of decision coaching as an intervention to facilitate shared decision making.
For any questions about this special interest group or if you wish to join, please email the co-chairs Birte Berger-Höger, Jeanette Finderup and Dawn Stacey.
- Jull J, Kopke S, †Smith M, Carley M, Finderup J, Rahn AC, Boland L, Dunn S, Dwyer AA, Kasper J, Kienlin SM, Légaré F, Lewis KB, †Lyddiatt A, Rutherford C, Zhao J, Rader T, Graham ID, Stacey D. (2021). Decision coaching for people making healthcare decisions Cochrane Database Syst Rev; 11(11):CD013385. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD013385.pub2. (†patient partners).
- Rahn AC, Jull J, Boland L, Finderup J, Loiselle MC, †Smith M, Kopke S, Stacey D. (2021). Guidance and /or decision coaching with patient decision aids: Scoping reviews to inform the International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS).Med Decis Making; 41(7):938-953. doi: 10.1177/0272989X21997330.
- Zhao J, Jull J, Finderup J, Smith M, Kienlin SM, Rahn, AC, Dunn S, Aoki Y, Brown L, Harvey G, Stacey D. (2022). Understanding how and under what circumstances decision coaching works for people making healthcare decisions: a realist review. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making. 22(1):265. doi: 10.1186/s12911-022-02007-0.
- More information available at: Decision Coaching – Patient Decision Aids – Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (ohri.ca)
- Coming soon: Steckelberg, A; Berger-Höger, B (Ed.) (2024): Decision Coaching. Förderung von informierten Entscheidungen durch Pflegefachpersonen. [Decision Coaching. Supporting Informed Decisions by Nurse Professionals] 1st Stuttgart: Kohlhammer. ISBN: 978-3-17-043669-5.
Dawn Stacey (Canada)
Affiliation: Distinguished Professor, University of Ottawa and Senior Scientist, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada
Decision Coaching Projects:
Dawn Stacey RN, PhD, FAAN, FRSC, FCAHS, FCAN established the conceptual and empirical evidence on decision coaching during her doctoral studies (2001-2005). Then she supervised the first study to evaluate decision coaching in pediatrics (2015). As part of the International Patient Decision Aid Standards Collaboration, she led the updated evidence synthesis on decision coaching as the primary and then senior author (2013; 2021). She published the first conceptual model on decision coach facilitated shared decision making (2008) and lead the update of the Ottawa Decision Support Framework that includes decision coaching (2020).
Birte Berger-Höger (Germany)
Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Bremen University, Germany
Decision Coaching Projects:
Birte Berger-Höger is an Assistant professor for Nursing Science at the University of Bremen, Germany. Her research focuses on decision support interventions in oncology. She developed and evaluated a nurse-led decision coaching intervention combined with a patient decision aid for women with ductal carcinoma. This intervention was subsequently adapted and evaluated for various other oncological situations, e.g. for women with BRCA1/2 gene mutations or patients with rare cancers. She is one of the editors of a German decision coaching teaching book which will be published soon.
Yumi Aoki (Japan)
Affiliation: Associate Professor, St. Luke’s International University, Tokyo, Japan
Decision Coaching Projects:
Yumi Aoki is an Associate Professor of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing at the Graduate School of Nursing Science, St. Luke’s International University, Tokyo, Japan. Her research primarily focuses on SDM in psychiatry and the development and implementation of patient decision aids for individuals with mental health conditions. She developed an interprofessional SDM program for mood disorders called the “Seven-Day SDM Program” in an outpatient psychiatric service in Tokyo. Within the program, she took on the role of a decision coach and also evaluated its intervention effects (2019).
Jeanette Finderup (Denmark)
Affiliation: Associate Professor, Aarhus University and Clinical Nurse Specialist, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
Decision Coaching Projects:
Jeanette Finderup works both clinically and academically with decision coaching. She has developed and evaluated three interventions for people with kidney failure all including decision coaching. The interventions are implemented and part of usual practice at 11 out of 14 hospitals in Denmark.
Simone Kienlin (Norway)
Affiliation: Special advisor for Shared decision making at the South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority, Department of Medicine and Healthcare and Ph.D. Candidate at the E-Health, Integrative care and Innovation Center, University Hospital of North Norway.
Decision Coaching Projects:
Kienlin is leading a project at The South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority to increase the uptake of SDM guided by a multi-faced implementation strategy. A part of this project is the development and implementation of the modularised meta-curriculum for training healthcare professionals in SDM “Ready for SDM”. One module is focused on training for decision coaches.
Krystina Lewis (Canada)
Affiliation: Associate Professor, University of Ottawa, Canada
Decision Coaching Projects:
Krystina Lewis is an Associate professor in the School of Nursing. Her research focuses on decision support interventions in cardiology. She developed and evaluated a patient decision aid with nurse-led decision coaching intervention for individuals at risk of sudden cardiac death facing implantable cardioverter-defibrillator replacement. She is a co-author on the Cochrane Review for decision coaching.
Kathy Kastner (Canada)
Affiliation: University of Toronto’s Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM)Practice Based Research Network (PBRN), Laval University Research Center, Stanford University Medicine X program
Decision Coaching Projects:
Kathy is patient partner on shared decision-making, end of life planning and health literacy. Both participant and presenter at conferences on Public Health and Palliative Care, International Conference on Shared Decision-Making and Health Literacy, she also facilitates workshops with University of Toronto’s Center for Advancing Collaborative Health and Education (CACHE). An author, ‘Death Kills’; original research,The Whiteboard Experiment, published in a peer reviewed journal; TEDxTalk: Exit Laughing; Keynote at Stanford University: Sweat the Small Stuff; YouTube series, ’10-second MedSchool’, on medication administration; BestEndings.com on end of life issues from a patient’s point of view.
Mirjam Garvelink (Netherlands)
Affiliation: Senior researcher and advisor in Shared Decision-Making in the department of Value Based Health Care (VBHC), at the St Antonius Hospital in the Netherlands
Decision Coaching Projects:
Mirjam is a senior researcher and advisor in Shared Decision-Making in the department of Value Based Health Care (VBHC), at the St Antonius Hospital in the Netherlands. This is a top clinical hospital that is part of a collaboration initiative with 7 hospitals to implement VBHC. She is trained as a Health Scientist, did a phd in Medical Decision-Making (Leiden University Medical Center), followed by a postdoc in Implementation of Shared Decision Making (Université Laval). Mirjam is convinced that decision coaching can play a major role in the empowerment of patients for SDM. Preliminary findings from a project on decision coaching by an independent nurse before the consultation with a specialist, show promising results of coaching on the exchange of information and values in the consultation, leading to increased levels of SDM.
Yulia Gendler (Israel)
Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Nursing Department, Ariel University, Israel
Decision Coaching Projects:
Yulia Gendler is an Assistant Professor in the Nursing Department at Ariel University, Israel. Her research focuses on decision-support interventions in pediatric settings, emphasizing culturally sensitive approaches in Israel’s diverse population. She leads decision-coaching projects on ADHD treatment, currently being evaluated in a four-arm randomized controlled trial, and HPV vaccination, aimed at improving communication between healthcare providers, parents, and adolescents.