Our programme in Values-based Surgical Care, developed in collaboration with the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, reflects the GMC’s long-standing guidance on the need for shared decision-making between patients and doctors and the particular importance of values in this context as marked by the 2015 Supreme Court ‘Montgomery judgment’ on consent.
This part of the website describes the ‘What?’ the ‘Why?’ and the ‘How?’ of values-based practice in surgical care
Meet the Team
The lead for the surgical care programme is Ashok Handa, Tutor for Surgery in Oxford and Co-director of the Collaborating Centre, supported by surgical trainees Zoe Barber, Tom Dobbs and Lucy Fulford-Smith, and by Bill Fulford, Director of the Collaborating Centre.
Zoe Barber Tom Dobbs Lucy Fulford-Smith
Bill Fulford
… and our thanks to everyone!
The programme and template have been developed with the support of a wide range of colleagues, patients and families. The undergraduate programme also reflects ideas and input from a number of our students.
We are very grateful to everyone for such generous support and hope that we have captured all the helpful insights they have given us.
What is Values-based Practice in Surgical Care?
Values-based practice is a sister framework to evidence-based practice. Based on learnable clinical skills values-based practice aims to improve the health care professional’s ability to engage with their patients in meaningful dialogue about values
Read more about values-based practice
In giving clinicians the skills to work with values as well as evidence values-based practice links science with people
For a clinical example and a time-effective approach to implementation
Read more: What is Values-based Practice in Surgical Care?
Why is Values-based Practice in Surgical Care Important?
The importance of skills for working with values as well as evidence is widely recognised in contemporary practice as the basis of shared decision-making between clinician and patient
Shared decision-making based on values allows evidence-based interventions to be targeted cost-effectively according to the needs and preferences of an individual patient. This is why it is emphasised equally in professional codes of practice such as the GMC’s guidance on consent and in evidence-based guidelines
A recent UK Supreme Court ruling (the 2015 Montgomery judgment) marks this aspect of good practice by making shared decision-making based on patients’ values central to consent to treatment
For details of codes and guidelines on shared decision-making based on values
Read more: Why is Values-based Practice in Surgical Care Important?
How is Values-based Practice in Surgical Care Implemented?
Based as it is on learnable clinical skills, training is essential to implementing values-based practice
We have developed and piloted a two-hour introductory seminar for clinicians, patients and carers in various areas of surgical care, and are now extending training to medical student teaching and to a ‘Nuts and Bolts’ programme for doctors in NHS Management
We have recorded our experience of developing these programmes in the form of a template that we hope will be helpful to other clinical areas in developing their own approach to values-based care
Read more: How is values-based practice in surgical care implemented?
For more on the training template based on values-based surgical care including a resource of exemplar learning materials
Read more: Values-based Practice in Clinical Care: A Training Template
