MAVIT5400 Alliance and Shared Decision Making Course description

Language of instruction: English (Norwegian if no English-speaking students have registered for the course)

This course explores the possibility of improving cooperation between patients/service users, therapists and interdisciplinary teams. Therapeutic processes require an alliance between the therapist/team and patient, built on health-related insight, empathy and the patient’s lifeworld. The purpose is to give the patient greater influence and active participation in treatment decisions in the health services. The course emphasises linking insights from research-based literature and theory developments concerning the actual meeting between the patient and therapist, and between professionals. The intention is a collaborative practice where the patient, their family and professionals comprise a unity. The students’ experiences from professional practice will be actively used in the teaching throughout the course.

The student must have been admitted to the Master’s Programme in Health Sciences.

After completing the course, the student should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence: 

Knowledge 

The student 

• can assess the interaction between professional and patient, and between professionals in different contexts and forms, with an emphasis on interpreting the elements of alliance development and shared decision-making
• can analyse knowledge about communication, empathy and the development of a therapeutic alliance in the interaction between patient and professional
• can critically assess knowledge about different forms of cooperation between patient and professionals, such as shared decision-making, user participation and empowerment
• can analyse knowledge about the significance of power and hierarchy in the relationship between the patient and the interdisciplinary team, and between members of the interdisciplinary team 

Skills

The student

• can contribute to giving patients/service recipients greater influence and co-determination by identifying what is important to them
• can use communication and information adapted to each individual patient/service recipient and provide decision-making support
• can use knowledge about the significance of insight into the patient’s personal background and lifeworld in the cooperation between patient and professional
• can assess the significance of social and cultural background when designing equitable services

General competence

The student

• can analyse interpersonal and social relationships of importance to treatment and rehabilitation processes, including power relations
• can analyse, apply and communicate the significance of alliance and shared decision-making between professional and patient
• can contribute to knowledge development in the understanding of interactions between patient and professional, and between professionals, and is able to communicate about this knowledge development

The course will use varied, student-active work methods. The work and teaching methods used in the course are lectures, group work and seminars that include discussion of literature, experience from practical training and analysis of patient situations and forms of interdisciplinary cooperation. Two teaching sessions are organised, each running over a period of two to three days. Between the sessions, the students will work on a written assignment that will be commented and discussed at the last session. Digital platforms will also be used for work between the sessions on campus. Students are expected to work actively on the written assignment between the sessions.

The following must have been approved in order for the student to take the examination:

•  Minimum attendance of 80% at teaching sessions

Home examination over four weeks, individually or in pairs.

Scope: 3,000-3,500 words for group assignments and 2,000-2,500 words for individual assignments.

If the course is taught in English, students can also choose to write/conduct the examination in a Scandinavian language (Norwegian, Swedish or Danish).

All aids are permitted, as long as the rules for source referencing are complied with.

Grade scale A-F.

At least 20% of the examination papers will be assessed by an external examiner together with an internal examiner. The remaining papers will be assessed by two internal examiners. The external examiner’s assessment should benefit all students.

The course overlaps by 5 ECTS credits with MAREH4100 Cooperation in Treatment and Rehabilitation