Predictors of novice nurses' use of intuition to guide patient care decisions

Nurses routinely report using intuition to guide decisions about patient care, although they use it covertly because of difficulty explaining the sources of their intuitions to colleagues. To help nurse educators guide students toward open discussion and appropriate use of intuition, this study compared personal, interpersonal, and professional experiences suggested by past research for their association with the use of intuition by nurses. A questionnaire completed by 323 novice nurses measured use of intuition with an 18-item subscale identified by Miller from the Miller Intuitiveness Instrument. Measures of personal experience included age, gender, hospitalizations, self-esteem, and religiosity. Interpersonal experience included parenthood and social support from family and friends. Professional experience included grade point average and months of on-the-job experience. Multiple regression revealed that novice nurses use intuition more to guide patient care if they are older, have had more hospitalizations, and experience more social support.