To Örebro University

Background: Although person-centered care is prioritized in healthcare, challenges remain before such care is integrated in everyday communication and practice. One way to strengthen person-centered care is that health professionals’ clinical reasoning (i.e., assessment and management) is pervaded by patient participation and individualized to patient needs. Interprofessional team meetings, focusing on goals and management planning, is an opportunityt o improve person-centeredness. However, there is a lack of understanding of how person-centeredness is created in the clinical reasoning of teams. This study aims to explore how clinical reasoning is performed from a person-centered perspective in team meetings with patients with stroke and next of kin.

Methods: Explorative qualitative design employing a thematic analysis of audio recorded communication at three team meetings. In total, three patients, two next of kin, and 15 professionals representing eight health professions, participated in the meetings.

Findings: Four themes and eight subthemes were established: a) Emphasizing the patient’s resources; b) Struggling to find a common understanding, including subthemes: Unite the person’s narrative, the relative’s view, and the expertise of the interprofessional team, missed opportunities to clarify patient needs and wishes, and active listening and receptiveness; c) Balancing the patient’s goals and professionals’ goals, including subthemes: Shared goals, the professionals’ view of appropriate goals, and the professionals’ assessment governs achievement of goals; d) Ambiguity in decisions about the management plan, including subthemes: Initiating shared decision making and lack of clarity and consensus.

Discussion: This study reveals how the patient, next of kin and team contribute to shared understanding of the patient’s problem. Goals were guided by the patient’s and professionals’ expertise. To improve person-centeredness in clinical reasoning, the team need to further put the patient’s personal goals and perception of goal-achievement in the forefront as well as improve communication skills to catch patient needs and facilitate shared decisions.