SCOPED helps patients make better decisions

Making decisions when you are ill is hard. Patients are often confused - and the overload of poor quality information on the internet just makes a bad situation worse.Doctors are often not very helpful, because they can be quite directive, and are likely to push patients into doing what they think is right for them, rather then allow patients to make up their own mind.Jeff Belkora developed SCOPED as a checklist for making decisions. SCOPED stands for: Situation, Choices, Objectives, People, Evaluation, and Decisions. People use SCOPED to think, talk, read and write about decisions.  Situation: clarifying known facts about my conditionChoices: clarifying which options are availableObjectives: clarifying my goals and prioritiesPeople: clarifying roles and responsibilitiesEvaluation: clarifying how my choices affect my objectivesDecisions: clarifying which choice is best and next stepshttp://www.scoped.orgThis is a very valuable tool for non-directive counselling, as it helps patients to find the right answer for themselves. All doctors and patient advocates should use this - especially for elective medical procedures 
Source: The Patient's Doctor - Category: Obstetricians and Gynecologists Tags: Conditions and Diseases Evidence-based medicine Health Health care Joint Commission Objectives United States Source Type: blogs