Nurses’ Perception of Clinical Decision Making Ability: A CrossSectional Survey

Abstract

Nursing practice today is becoming more complex with advancement in technology and changing health care needs of the population. There is an increased demand on the health care service requirements and competencies from the health care professionals. Nurses being the key health care providers are expected to be specialised in task of decision making. Hence, understanding the type of clinical decision making (CDM) abilities in solving problems in practice may be helpful in education and research. This study emphasises on the CDM ability used by nurses in practice and its association with their demographic variables. A crosssectional survey was carried out among 94 nurses in a selected tertiary care hospital of Udupi district (Karnataka). A 24-item CDM instrument was used for evaluation when caring for a patient with post-operative pain. Nurses’ decision making was categorised as analytical (79). The collected data were analysed with descriptive frequencies and one way ANOVA. All the participants reported the use of analytical model of decision making. Age was associated with analytical model of clinical decision making (F=2.063, p=0.012). Incorporation of the kinds of decision making abilities used by nurses will help bring improvement in the nursing curriculum thus expanding the clinical decision making abilities of future nurses.