title: Defining the expert ICU nurse.
abstract: This paper explores the concept of expertise in intensive care nursing practice from the perspective of its relationship to the current driving forces in healthcare. It discusses the potential barriers to acceptance of nursing expertise in a climate in which quantification of value and cost containment run high on agendas. It argues that nursing expertise which focuses on the provision of individualised, holistic care and which is based largely on intuitive decision-making cannot and should not be reduced to being articulated in positivist terms. The principles of abduction or fuzzy logic, derived from computer science, may be useful in assisting nurses to explain in terms, which others can comprehend, the value of nursing expertise.
authors.affiliation: Bournemouth University, Nursing Studies, Bournemouth House, Christchurch Road, Bournemouth BH1 3LT, UK. mchristensen@bournemouth.ac.uk
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Christensen
authors.forename: Jaqui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hewitt-Taylor
mesh_terms: D001154:Art; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D003363:Cost Control; D003422:Critical Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017143:Fuzzy Logic; D006801:Humans; D016294:Models, Nursing; D024802:Nurse's Role; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D009736:Nursing Process; D011209:Power, Psychological; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D017009:Professional Autonomy; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012586:Science; D006113:United Kingdom