Using nudges to promote clinical decision making of healthcare professionals: A scoping review

• Nudging has been discussed in the context of policy and public health, but not so much within healthcare. This scoping review aimed to assess the empirical evidence on how nudging techniques can be used to affect the behavior of healthcare professionals (HCPs) in clinical settings. A systematic database search was conducted for the period January 2010-December 2020 using the PRISMA extension for Scoping Review checklist. Two reviewers independently screened each article for inclusion. Included articles were reviewed to extract key information about each intervention, including purpose, target behavior, measured outcomes, key findings, nudging strategies, intervention objectives and their theoretical underpinnings. Two independent dimensions, building on Kahneman's System 1 and System 2, were used to describe nudging strategies according to user action and timing of their implementation. Of the included 51 articles, 40 reported statistically significant results, six were not significant and two re -ported mixed results. Thirteen different nudging strategies were identified aimed at modifying four types of HPCs' behavior: prescriptions and orders, procedure, hand hygiene, and vaccination. The most common nudging strategy employed were defaults or pre-orders, followed by alerts or reminders, and active choice. Many in-terventions did not require any deliberate action from users, here termed passive interventions, such as auto-matically changing prescriptions to their generic equivalent unless indicated by the user. Passive nudges may be successful in changing the target outcome but may go unnoticed by the user. Future work should consider the broader ethical implications of passive nudges.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Omvårdnad (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Nursing (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Nudging

Behavior change

Decision architecture

Healthcare

professionals

Intervention

increase influenza vaccination

hand hygiene compliance

active choice

behavioral economics

improve

record

policy

intervention

guidelines

feedback

Public

Environmental & Occupational Health

General & Internal Medicine

NudgingBehavior changeDecision architectureHealthcare professionalsIntervention

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

for (subject category)