Monday, March 23, 2009

Module #4 question 1

1. How did the readings influence your perception of your own clinical decision-making? How do we reconcile the value of nursing experience with known heuristics and biases used in human decision making?

The readings really opened my eyes when concerning clinical decision-making in providing nursing care. I can think of a couple of nurses that I know who rely primarily on their own heuristics and biases when providing care. I would say that these nurses are very intelligent and are great resources to have on our unit, but after reading these articles I wonder how much they really do know. This is not to say that experience and instinct don't account for anything. I think that having both of those things are part of what makes a good nurse. I do however see the problems that can arise by depending on heuristics and biases only.
I feel like nurses in general probably need more experience and teaching when it comes to nursing research. There is a lot of information out there, and it can be overwhelming if you don't know what you are looking for. I know that I have felt that way before, and am finding my nursing research class very helpful. Having the time to do this another concern, and I can see how nurses may tend to stick to their instincts when time is of the essence.  I do think that by becoming a better researcher, nurses will be able to navigate quicker and may be able to do this more frequently. There definitely needs to be a balance between instincts and knowledge from evidence based research.

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