Health Care Provider Perspectives on Shared Decision Making With Parents and Adolescents

Little is known about health care provider perspectives on sharing decisions in a parent-adolescent-provider triad. This perspective is needed to develop tools for supporting shared decision-making (SDM) in a triad that involves an adolescent. To assess this perspective, we conducted individual interviews with pediatric health care providers. Trained study staff interviewed health care providers who work with adolescents with chronic conditions about their medical decision-making experience and key components of SDM. Interviews were transcribed, coded, and analyzed using thematic content analysis. Our analysis elicited 3 major themes: (1) roles of each triad member; (2) key aspects of triadic SDM components; and (3) essentials for triadic SDM with an adolescent. Providers discussed the importance of alignment between parents and adolescents and facilitating such alignment through preference discussions. We found that providers want to engage adolescents with chronic conditions and their parents and achieve alignment between these 2 parties, during shared medical decisions.