Clinical constructions by nurses in Korea, Norway, and the United States.
Nursing practice involves engagement of nurses in clinical fields through deliberation and enactment. In the phase of deliberation, nurses observe, recognize, form ideas about and decide on clinical situations, and construct clinical pictures. Clinical pictures are critically connected to nursing enactments, thus it is important to discover how nurses arrive at clinical pictures. The purpose of this article is to describe how nurses construct meanings of clinical situations and arrive at specific clinical pictures. The results are from a clinical fieldwork study replicated in Korea, Norway, and the United States, with samples of nurses working in acute-care hospitals. Data were collected through participant observations and in-depth interviews. A general model of clinical construction was derived from the results, which specifies four dimensions (i.e., problem, progress, status, and particularism) as the bases for clinical picture evocations. Clinical pictures are constituted by nurses' elicitations of meanings of clinical situations on these dimensions.
Kim
Hesook Suzie
HS
Buskerud University College, University of Rhode Island, USA. suziekim@regencydv.com
Ellefsen
Bodil
B
Kyung Ja Han
Alves
Steve L
SL
D000208:Acute Disease / Q000451:nursing; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003657:Decision Making; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea; D016294:Models, Nursing; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009664:Norway; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D009733:Nursing Diagnosis; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009736:Nursing Process / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology*; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D010687:Philosophy, Nursing; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States