Educational initiatives based on the effect of emotions in the medical decision making process: a systematic review

Abstract

Clinical decision-making was once considered the result of a strictly cognitive process, however, it is now known that they are influenced by emotions. Educational activities conducted throughout the medical education process aimed at developing these emotional aspects may result in professionals more apt to make correct clinical decisions, but little is known about their real effects. In order to analyze the influence of emotions on the decision-making process in medical education, a systematic review was carried out using the Medline databases (via PUBMED), VHL and ERIC to identify original empirical studies. It was possible to identify that emotion and reason influence the clinical decision-making process, however there are few studies that in fact leave the field merely theoretical and descriptive and present an experimental design. Eight studies were identified that used educational strategies in order to modulate decision making, using different models of evaluation and obtaining results. The identified articles presented varied strategies, such as workshops, use of online tools, evaluation of the effect of positive feelings on reasoning and clinical decision-making, simulated environments, audiovisual resources, OSCE, among others. The results observed were often not direct with improved performance, but through side effects such as greater interest in resolving cases or even greater speed in resolving them. The studies analyzed are quite heterogeneous, requiring more work that can measure such relationships in greater depth and effectively manage to outline effective educational strategies.