Paeds Cases · professional-practice-and-evidence
Explaining a treatment's risks and benefits — OSCE
OSCE on communicating the risks and benefits of a preventive medication to parents using evidence-based risk-communication tools, with attention to framing, numeracy, uncertainty and teach-back.
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Study tools
Target exams
MRCPCH ClinicalRACP DCERCPSC Pediatrics
Prompt
Parents of an 8-year-old are in clinic deciding whether to start a daily preventive medication for a chronic illness; they have read online that it 'reduces harm by 50%' and that it carries a rare serious side effect; the family speaks limited English; a trained interpreter is available.
Station brief (8–10 minutes)
Help the parents decide whether to start the preventive medication by communicating the benefit and the rare harm accurately. Address their concern about the online "50%" figure and their numeracy and language needs. Do not invent jurisdiction-specific thresholds or specific survival statistics. [1]
References6ShowHide
- [1]Gigerenzer G Helping Doctors and Patients Make Sense of Health Statistics. Psychological science in the public interest, 2007.PMID 26161749
- [4]Zipkin DA Evidence-based risk communication: a systematic review. Annals of internal medicine, 2014.PMID 25133362
- [6]Schwartz LM Using a drug facts box to communicate drug benefits and harms: two randomized trials. Annals of internal medicine, 2009.PMID 19221371
- [10]Moxey A Describing treatment effects to patients. Journal of general internal medicine, 2003.PMID 14687282
- [13]Peters E Communicating Numeric Risk Information to Patients. Journal of general internal medicine, 2025.PMID 40301218
- [14]Levetown M Communicating with children and families: from everyday interactions to skill in conveying distressing information. Pediatrics, 2008.PMID 18450887