Factors Influencing Nurses Decision Making
Question:
Answer:
It is important to acknowledge the modern factors that influence the decision making of nurses. In modern care delivery, there exists a direct correlation between the quality of patient outcomes and decision-making among nurses in clinical reasoning cycle. To affirm this, Paterson et al. (2016) noted that nurse’s decisions have a direct and immediate implication on the well-being and survival of patients under their care. In this case, taking into account of the critical role of decision making in clinical nurse practice, it is imperative to appreciate the factors that positively or negatively impact on the decision making. Some of the fundamental factors affecting nurse’s decisions include lack of knowledge of possibilities, experience, information, and resources. In this paper, lack of information has been selected as the most significant factor affecting decision making by the nurses.
In the healthcare sector, nurses are identified as the main source of decisions touching care delivery and patient handling. In this case, Thompson et al. (2013) argued that nurses are supposed to leverage on the most reliable and applicable evidence to inform their decisions and judgement. Nurses working in clinical settings fails to appreciate the fact that implementation of research in their clinical settings is only achievable if they adopt the already existing evidence-based research. Research by Joseph-Williams et al. (2014) observed that very few nurses have the potential of using evidence-based research in making their decisions. This is mainly influenced by the limited information available for the use by nurses. Due to the lack of information, nurses perceive other colleagues as having ideal information which is applicable in their decision making contrary to using research in gathering information. However, the limitation of using colleagues as a source of information is informed by the fact that they tend to delivery context-specific information. Pearson (2013) identified this as the relevant information in clinical set-up that factors on the diverse requirements of making judgement and decision-making. In this case, such an information requires a minimal critical appraisal and is also regarded as being time efficient. In this case, nurses can end up making wrong or inadequate decision since the sourced information could not be reliable or valid. To affirm this, Kilicarslan-Toruner and Akgun-Citak (2013) noted that nurses who use published information tend to make a well-informed decision which is useful in the care delivery.
In conclusion, there are different factors that significantly influence the decision making of nurses. In this case, this paper has identified that clinical decision making by nurses is a critical determinant of the success of care delivery in clinical reasoning cycle. Nevertheless, different factors influence their decision making. Lack of information has been identified as a significant factor. Majority of the nurses refer to their colleagues in gathering specific information for their decision making. This is however ineffective as compared to nurses using published sources in collecting their information.
References
Joseph-Williams, N., Elwyn, G., & Edwards, A. (2014). Knowledge is not power for patients: a systematic review and thematic synthesis of patient-reported barriers and facilitators to shared decision making. Patient education and counseling, 94(3), 291-309.
Kilicarslan-Toruner, E., & Akgun-Citak, E. (2013). Information-seeking behaviours and decision-making process of parents of children with cancer. European Journal of Oncology Nursing, 17(2), 176-183.
Paterson, B., Thorne, S., & Russell, C. (2016). Disease-specific influences on meaning and significance in self-care decision-making in chronic illness. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research Archive, 34(3).
Pearson, H. (2013). Science and intuition: do both have a place in clinical decision making?. British Journal of Nursing, 22(4), 212-215.
Thompson, C., Aitken, L., Doran, D., & Dowding, D. (2013). An agenda for clinical decision making and judgement in nursing research and education. International journal of nursing studies, 50(12), 1720-1726.
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