title: Critical care outreach: the need for effective decision-making in clinical practice (part 2).
abstract: As the extension of nursing into roles previously within the domain of medicine and the demand for evidence based practice continue to increase, the quality of decision making becomes imperative. Making accurate decisions is essential, both for the practitioner and for the patient, especially in the provision of critical care outreach (CCOR), to improve outcomes of care. With changes in health care delivery and increased accountability for practitioners' decisions, it is important to understand more about how clinical decisions are made and what factors influence them in order to inform practice. The previous paper outlined the theoretical background of clinical decision making and the knowledge that underpins practice in CCOR. In this paper, the authors, a Nurse Consultant in CCOR and a research fellow, examine the process of a practitioner's decision making in the practice of CCOR, through a collaborative reflective account of a case study. From this, recommendations are made about the future development of CCOR practitioners and services.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Integrated Health Care Research, School for Health, Durham University, United Kingdom. Helen.Hancock@Durham.ac.uk <Helen.Hancock@Durham.ac.uk>
authors.forename: Helen C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Hancock
authors.forename: Lesley
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Durham
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003422:Critical Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration; D003657:Decision Making; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009102:Multiple Organ Failure / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000451:nursing / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009720:Nurse Clinicians; D024802:Nurse's Role; D012720:Severity of Illness Index