Ask Share Know
Health information can be hard to understand, and making decisions about your health can be difficult. Ask Share Know is a strategy that will help you learn about tests, treatment or care.
What is Ask Share Know?
Ask Share Know is a tool that helps you understand health information and make shared decisions with your health provider.
Ask Share Know helps you remember to:
- Ask questions to help get the information you need
- Share what matters to you
- Know your options
Use our Ask Share Know summary sheet to record the discussion you have with your healthcare professional.
Common decisions you may need to make could be about:
- Taking a test
- Having a procedure or operation
- Taking a medicine
- Making a lifestyle change
Ask Share Know gives you the words to use when speaking to a health professional to learn more about tests, treatment and care options and make the right decision for you.
Using Ask Share Know
Ask
Ask these questions
When faced with a healthcare decision, it’s important to ask your health professional questions so you can understand your options and how they may impact you.
It’s not always obvious what questions to ask or what questions are important.
Questions to ask your health professional:
- What are my options? This prompts health professionals to list all your options, with one option always being ‘wait and watch’.
- What are the possible benefits and harms of these options? This question helps you understand the benefits and harms of each option. A benefit may be getting better quicker, and a harm may be a side effect such as diarrhoea, nausea or being sick (vomiting).
- How likely are each of those benefits and harms to happen to me? This question helps you know the chances of getting the benefits or harms of your options and will consider your medical history and risk factors (such as obesity or smoking).
Share
Share what matters
Good health decisions consider what matters to you, such as your specific goals, preferences and history.
It’s important health professionals understand what matters to you so they can factor it in when considering your healthcare options.
The more information you share with your health professional, the more you can work together on a shared decision and plan of action.
Information to consider sharing:
- Your specific goals with your healthcare
- Your preferences for healthcare
- Your medical history
- Your lifestyle
- Your personal situation at home and at work
- Your long and short term plans
Know
Knowing what decision is best for you
Healthcare can be confusing and upsetting, making it difficult to take in information.
It’s normal to feel unsure about what healthcare decision to make, even after asking questions and having conversations with your health professional.
Feeling confident in your decision comes from fully knowing and understanding all the information given to you.
To help you know all the information during conversations with your health professional, you can:
- Take someone with you to your appointment as a second set of ears.
- Use the Ask Share Know questions.
- Ask to stop or pause a few times to check you know what the health professional is saying.
- Health professionals often use words most people do not understand, it is okay to say you do not know what these words mean. Ask the health professional to repeat themselves, say it again in a different way, or use simpler words if you don’t understand.
- Ask to record the conversation to remember what you talked about or what you decided to do. Most smart phones can record.
- Take a pen and paper with you. You can write answers yourself or ask the health professional to do that for you. Download and print the Ask Share Know summary sheet to help write your notes.
- Take your time in deciding – you don’t need to decide straight away and sometimes it can be helpful to think things over and discuss with your loved ones.