Complexity perspectives on clinical decision making in an intensive care unit

How to clarify the implications of complexity thinking for decision making in the intensive care unit (ICU)?

Retrospective qualitative empirical research. Practitioners in an ICU were interviewed on how their decisions were made regarding a particular patient in a difficult, clinical situation. Transcriptions of these interviews were coded and retrieved in Maxqda, a software program. Assisted by complexity thinking, researchers focused on the decision-making process and the shift from analytic approaches to complex approaches.

Originally, practitioners took their decisions with negligible transdisciplinary interactivity, drawing on analytical knowledge. Later on, they shifted to transdisciplinary practices, paying attention to more participation in their decision-making processes within their complex environment.

Complexity thinking demonstrates that this is a better model towards understanding transdisciplinary decision making then most analytical methodologies.