What role is there for 'nudging' clinicians?

Abstract

Interest in ‘nudging’ the public on healthrelated matters, such as healthy eating, exercising, becoming an organ donor, and most recently COVID-19, has spilled over into nudging healthcare professionals.1–6 Although experience and intuition serve clinicians well most of the time, the rules-of-thumb that drive, often quick or subconscious, decisions made under the pressures of day-to-day practice may not always result in good-quality, cost-effective care. This has generated growing interest in designing behaviour change interventions that consciously or otherwise ‘nudge’ clinicians in a certain direction.1–5 However, the ethics of nudging have been questioned, as has the science underpinning it.7 In this analysis we examine the rise of nudgetheory and discuss the opportunities and limitations of its application to behaviour change interventions aimed at clinicians.