Developing an instrument to measure and describe clinical decision making in different nursing fields

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a decision-making instrument for nursing, to consider the nursing decision-making models in different nursing fields, and to create a scoring system for the instrument. A 56-item instrument was developed on the basis of different decision-making theories and earlier studies about nursing decision making. The instrument was evaluated by using several different convenience samples of nurses from seven different countries (N = 1,460). Statistical analysis used were correlation coefficients, factor analysis, factor scores, and factor reliability coefficients. The results indicated that nurses from different countries and working in different fields of nursing respond similarly. The results of the studies using the 56-item instrument showed that nurses use four kinds of decision-making models (analytical, analytical-intuitive, intuitive-analytical, and intuitive). The factor reliability scores were high (alpha = 0.85-0.91). According to the results, 60 per cent of the nurses used the analytical-intuitive and intuitive-analytical decision-making models, 14 per cent used the analytical model, and 26 per cent used the intuitive model. However, these models vary both between and within different fields of nursing. Copyright 2002, Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.