Fostering decision making in nursing

Health care organizations have focused on external nursing recruitment incentives such as improved pay scales, greater bonuses, and flexible scheduling. Frequently, they have failed to take into account a fundamental source of professional satisfaction: the opportunity to make decisions. It is important for nurse managers, nurse educators, and clinical nurse specialists to understand the anatomy of the decision-making process, which includes gathering patient data, recalling possible nursing diagnoses and interventions, analyzing, synthesizing, making judgments, and implementing, following through, and evaluating the intervention. More decision making will put more fulfillment into the role of the professional nurse.