Clinical Decision Making at the Bedside

Marie Ann Marino; Katherine Andrews; Julia Ward

doi:10.1016/j.cnur.2019.10.003

Clinical Decision Making at the Bedside

Nurs Clin North Am. 2020 Mar;55(1):29-37. doi: 10.1016/j.cnur.2019.10.003. Epub 2019 Dec 25.

Authors

Marie Ann Marino¹, Katherine Andrews², Julia Ward³

Affiliations

¹ Jefferson College of Nursing, Thomas Jefferson University, 901 Walnut Street, Suite 804, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA. Electronic address: marie.marino@jefferson.edu.
² Surgical Intensive Care Unit, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, 111 South 11th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA.
³ Jefferson College of Nursing, Thomas Jefferson University, 901 Walnut Street, Suite 804, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA.

PMID: 32005363
DOI: 10.1016/j.cnur.2019.10.003

Abstract

The complexity and rapidly changing environment of health care places significant pressure on nurses. How nurses make decisions within this environment has been an area of inquiry in the literature. Clinical decision making is the application of distinct thinking patterns and analysis of data at hand used to make judgements about patient care. Models of clinical decision making provide a foundation for understanding how nurses make decisions. Key factors associated with clinical decision making include experience, intuition, use of information and sources, and environment. Further work is needed to increase understanding of the processes by which nurses make clinical decisions.

Keywords: Clinical decision making; Environment; Experience; Information sources; Intuition.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Adult
Clinical Competence / standards*
Clinical Decision-Making*
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Models, Nursing
Nursing Care / standards*
Nursing Staff, Hospital / standards*
Point-of-Care Systems / standards*
Practice Guidelines as Topic*