ABSTRACT
People make all types of medical decisions on an individual level as a part of their health care processes—whether to go to the physician when feeling ill, whether to take medication prescribed by a physician, or whether to attend a follow-up visit. The medical context strongly impacts the nature of shared decision making. For instance, shared decision making about managing diabetes will likely be quite different from shared decision making during acute care in the emergency room. The medical contexts in the some cases differed significantly and played an important role in the decision-making process. For Marianne Stewart, because the decision regarded a birthing procedure, it was necessary that one of the two choices were made. The cases illustrate how important it is to look at the various contexts of the decision making process in order to better understand why and how it happens.
