Intuitive Decision Making as the Culmination of Continuing Education: A Theoretical Framework

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Clinical Decision-Making
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Sound clinical decision-making is crucial for high-quality nursing care.
• Expert nurses demonstrate fewer decision-making errors and rely more on intuition compared to novice nurses.
• Developing intuitive decision-making is a key objective for continuing nurse education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel educational framework for fostering intuitive decision-making in nurses.
• To integrate established theories into a cohesive model for nursing education.
• To provide a foundation for continuing education programs aimed at enhancing nurses' decision-making abilities.

Main Methods:

• A pattern-based, constructivist educational framework is proposed.
• The framework synthesizes Benner's Novice to Expert (NTE) theory, Damascio's Somatic Marker Hypothesis (SMH), and Hammond's Cognitive Continuum Theory (CCT).
• The framework is designed for application in continuing nursing education.

Main Results:

• The proposed framework offers a theoretically sound approach to developing intuitive decision-making in nurses.
• While empirical validation is pending, the framework is applicable across all nursing specialties.
• Implementation has the potential to decrease nursing decision-making errors.

Conclusions:

• The synthesized educational framework provides a pathway for enhancing intuitive decision-making in nurses.
• This approach can contribute to reducing clinical errors and improving patient outcomes.
• Further empirical research is recommended to validate the framework's effectiveness.