Assisting Learners to Understand and Incorporate Functions of Clinical Judgment Into Nursing Practice

Abstract

Background: Mastering clinical judgment (CJ) skills is an essential competency for nurses in all health care environments.

Problem: Complexities of the health environment combined with the intricacies of nursing practice can pose potential risks to client safety.

Approach: Over a 2-year period, a 3-phased approach using (1) survey results from nurses in education and practice, (2) discussion forums, and (3) a series of think tanks that comprised nurse educators resulted in the development of the Guide for CJ.

Outcomes: The Guide for CJ provides nurse educators with an evidence-based resource to promote CJ skills in nursing students. The environmental and individual factors and expected nurse responses and behaviors contained in the Guide are well-aligned with the cognitive operations contained in the National Council of State Boards of Nursing Action Model.

Conclusions: Educators may use the Guide to support faculty development and operationalize CJ to develop a variety of learning strategies for use in multiple learning environments.