Experts from Keele University have worked alongside a national policymaker to develop new learning resources to train healthcare professionals.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has today published a new guideline about shared decision making, which says that shared decisions between service users and healthcare professionals are an integral part of healthcare and recommends that shared decision making should be part of everyday practice across all healthcare settings.

The guideline sets out ways for healthcare professionals to work with service users to make decisions about their treatment and care, and to ensure this is best practice at an organisational level.

As part of the guideline launch, researchers from Keele’s School of Pharmacy and Bioengineering have collaborated with NICE to create a new learning package of resources to help train healthcare professionals in shared decision making, to help implement NICE’s recommendations.

Head of School Professor Katie Maddock said: "The School of Pharmacy and Bioengineering is delighted to have been able to share our expertise in both shared decision making and the delivery of online education with the specialists at NICE to develop this new learning package.

“This new resource will enable practitioners from all healthcare professions to develop and put into practise the skills required for shared decision making which is a fundamental component of person-centred care. We are very much looking forward to the release of the education package alongside the new NICE guideline and also to evaluating its use within healthcare."

Professor Gillian Leng, NICE chief executive, added: “We’re delighted to see this shared decision making guideline published and we hope it will help people using healthcare services feel more confident in discussing care and treatment options with their healthcare teams. These recommendations should help healthcare professionals to embed good practice in all their interactions with the people they are caring for and at an organisational level.

“We view these recommendations as underpinning the implementation of all NICE’s work, and it’s important that these recommendations are put into practice at all levels across the system to support patient care. We’ve been delighted to collaborate with our partners to develop this guideline, the patient decision aid framework, and the learning package to fully support bringing these recommendations to the healthcare system.”

The guideline and accompanying tools and resources can be read here.