Values-Based Decision-Making for the Caring Professions

Acting as a practical guide to decision-making, this book shows how to expose and understand the true bases of decisions. It presents a review of decision-making tools, ranging from quantitative to qualitative, and explains, with examples, how each may be used to make effective and practical decisions. It is aimed at all health professionals.

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We have lost sight of the vital symmetry between values and evidence. Values lie behind absolutely everything we do, yet we allow technical decision-making to dominate every social sphere, as if only 'the evidence' really matters. In this extraordinarily original and compelling book, David Seedhouse advocates values-based decision-making as a much-needed means of restoring humane balance to social planning, and explains the innovative use of information technology to turn values into evidence. The potential of values-based decision-making is huge and exciting. The final chapter of this seminal work points the way to a democratic future, in which everyone's values can be seen and heard, regardless of technical knowledge or social status. "Values-Based Decision-Making" mostly uses examples drawn from the health field. Like David Seedhouse's many other books, it will be of considerable interest to all health professionals. But values-based decision-making reaches into every arena of human problem-solving, and should therefore be read by everyone who make plans on behalf of other people.