Illinois State University

AAT 3106754 Making clinical decisions: Baccalaureate nursing student thought processes Adams, Barbara Louise ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY EdD 2003 Rhodes, Dent M. DAI-B 64/09, p. 4280, Mar 2004 126 HEALTH SCIENCES, NURSING (0569)  Preview      9.32Mb image-only PDF, free!  Shopping Cart      Marked List The principal objective of this qualitative study was to identify the thought processes used by baccalaureate nursing students to make clinical decisions. The sample (n = 9) were junior baccalaureate students attending a large Midwestern College of Nursing. Hypothetical case scenarios represented clinical data; a think-aloud technique was audiotape recorded. The first interview occurred the first week of the student's first nursing class; the second occurred three months later at the end of the semester in which the nursing process was taught and students had a first clinical experience. Analysis of the transcripts of the audio recordings showed all nine students used inductive thinking to make clinical decisions; five students used deductive thinking in the first interview with inductive thinking; only one student used deductive thinking in the second interview. All nine students displayed early hypothesis creation. Other strategies used during decision making were personal experience, assumptions and stereotypes, visual images, and global view. The nursing process is a deductive process; these students naturally used inductive thinking to make clinical decisions. These data show that the nursing process does not reflect the decision making strategy of this student sample.

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