Being involved in decisions about your care

Overview

Patients have a right to be involved in making decisions about their health care. Shared decision making can improve satisfaction with care and lead to better outcomes. To facilitate shared decision making, you should decide what is important to you when it comes to health care, and make your goals, values and preferences known to your care team and your loved ones.

Shared decision making is an important part of person-centred care. Person-centred care means you are treated with respect and that care is shaped around your needs and preferences. We embed person-centred care throughout standards and guidelines we develop to support safety and quality in a range of healthcare settings.
 

Communicating with your healthcare provider

Communicating with your healthcare provider involves asking questions, being told information, and making decisions together. This can be tricky when health information is hard to understand, or when you don’t know what questions to ask. The more you understand about the information given to you by a health professional, the better prepared you will be to make informed decisions that are right for you. 

We have information to help you ask questions, improve your understanding of health information and get the most out of your care.

The Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights outlines what you can expect from your health care, including access, safety, respect, partnership, information, privacy and giving feedback.

Go to Charter page

Identifying and setting goals of care

A goal of care describes what you want to achieve through care or treatment such as lowering your blood pressure, healing an injury or walking without pain. Achieving these goals will help you do things you want to, like being able to walk up steps, attend a wedding, do some gardening or go on a trip.

It is important that your healthcare team know your goals, as it helps them understand what is important to you. It is also important to talk about your goals, because sometimes they might be different to your healthcare team’s goals.

The below resources provide tips to help you identify and communicate your goals of care.

Our goals of care fact sheet and Easy English guide provide you with tips about goal setting. It is also available in video format. 

What role do health professionals have?

Health professionals have an important role to play in helping consumers identifying their goals of care. It is critical that health professionals create an environment in which a patient is supported to discuss their wishes and expectations.

Our goal setting guide and fact sheet provide tips and tools that can be used by health professionals to collaboratively identify and set goals with patients.

Our National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards require all hospitals and day procedure services to have a comprehensive care plan for each patient that documents agreed goals of care, and outlines medical, nursing and allied health activities for the patient.
 

Decision support tools for consumers

Evidence-based decision support tools improve your knowledge of treatment options and outline the possible benefits and harms of those options. The below resources can be used when talking to your healthcare provider to facilitate shared decision making.

• Heavy Menstrual Bleeding Treatment Options
• Sinusitis: Should I take antibiotics?
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation (flare-up): Should I take antibiotics?
• Do I really need antibiotics? - Fact sheet
• Sore throat: should I take antibiotics?
• Middle ear infection: should my child take antibiotics?
• Acute bronchitis: should I take antibiotics?
   

Tools and resources for health professionals

We have a series of videos that describe shared decision making.