title: Practice standards for quality clinical decision-making in nursing.
abstract: The purpose of this study is to formulate practice standards for quality clinical decision-making in nursing. Clinical decision-making is a critical component of nursing practice, as the life of the patient is at stake. The quality of clinical decision-making is, therefore, essential in delivering quality nursing care. The facilitation of quality clinical decision-making in nursing requires the development of standards to monitor, evaluate and implement remedial actions that improve on the quality of clinical decision-making (Muller, 2002:203; Beyea & Nicoll, 1999: 495). However, there are no such practice standards against which the quality of clinical decision-making by nurses can be evaluated and assessed. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and standard formulation research design (Mouton & Marais, 1990:45-46; Muller, 1990:49-55) has been followed to develop standards for quality clinical decision-making in nursing. Standard development was based on the principles described by Muller (in Booyens, 1998: 607-608; 636-637), and consists of development and quantification phases that are modified to meet the requirements for instrument development, as described by Lynn (1986: 382-385). The formulation of these practice-standards was derived deductively from a conceptual framework. The conceptual framework was constructed based on an exploration and description of the expectations of the stakeholders about quality clinical decision-making in nursing and a literature study on clinical decision-making. To ensure the credibility of the standards for clinical decision-making in nursing, principles of logic, prolonged engagement, triangulation, peer-group discussion, dense description, step-wise repetition and an investigative audit (Lincoln & Guba, 1985:289-331) were adhered to. Two experts were consulted to validate the standards for quality clinical decision-making in nursing.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health, School of Nursing, University of Johannesburg, P.O. Box 524, Auckland Park. ea@edcur.rau.ac.za
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Arries
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D003657:Decision Making; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D017144:Focus Groups; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008128:Logic; D016294:Models, Nursing; D024802:Nurse's Role / Q000523:psychology; D009730:Nursing Assessment / Q000592:standards; D009731:Nursing Audit; D009733:Nursing Diagnosis / Q000592:standards; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009736:Nursing Process / Q000592:standards*; D010347:Patient Care Planning / Q000458:organization & administration; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D010379:Peer Group; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011340:Problem Solving; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D013019:South Africa; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires