Health professionals' decision-making in wound management: a grounded theory

To develop a conceptual understanding of the decision-making processes used by healthcare professionals in wound care practice.

With the global move towards using an evidence-base in standardizing wound care practices and the need to reduce hospital wound care costs, it is important to understand health professionals' decision-making in this important yet under-researched area.

A grounded theory approach was used to explore clinical decision-making of healthcare professionals in wound care practice.

Interviews were conducted with 20 multi-disciplinary participants from nursing, surgery, infection control and wound care who worked at a metropolitan hospital in Australia. Data were collected during 2012-2013. Constant comparative analysis underpinned by Strauss and Corbin's framework was used to identify clinical decision-making processes.

The core category was 'balancing practice-based knowledge with evidence-based knowledge'. Participants' clinical practice and actions embedded the following processes: 'utilizing the best available information', 'using a consistent approach in wound assessment' and 'using a multidisciplinary approach'. The substantive theory explains how practice and evidence knowledge was balanced and the variation in use of intuitive practice-based knowledge versus evidence-based knowledge. Participants considered patients' needs and preferences, costs, outcomes, technologies, others' expertise and established practices. Participants' decision-making tended to be more heavily weighted towards intuitive practice-based processes.

These findings offer a better understanding of the processes used by health professionals' in their decision-making in wound care. Such an understanding may inform the development of evidence-based interventions that lead to better patient outcomes.