Critical care nurses’ decision‐making activities in the natural clinical setting

Abstract

• This article reports on observation of 18 nurses in urban and rural based critical care settings. • The purpose of the study was to observe and describe the decision‐making activities of critical care nurses within natural clinical settings. • During the 2‐hour observation, the researcher dictated a detailed commentary on to audio‐tape of each nurse’s actions. Tapes were transcribed and subjected to content analysis. • Findings indicated three main categories of decisions. Decision frequencies were linked to nurses’ critical care experience, appointment level, and location, as well as nursing shifts. • The findings are discussed in relation to previous empirical evidence and the implications for practice. • The author concludes that future research should be directed towards measuring the contextual influences on nurses’ decision‐making on the outcome of patient care.