Critical care nurses' critical thinking and decision making related to pain management

The current study aimed to examine nurses' critical thinking and decision-making skills related to pain management and their association with nurses' characteristics.

This descriptive correlational study used a convenience sample of 115 critical care nurses working in a university hospital in Jordan. Data were collected using a pain-related vignette and validated questionnaires.

The Critical Thinking Self-Assessment Scale and the Nursing Decision-Making Instrument were used to measure the nurses' critical thinking and decision-making skills, respectively. As a secondary outcome measure, data regarding the sociodemographic/professional characteristics of the participants, including gender, marital status, experience, education and work environment, were collected.

The participating nurses reported poor critical thinking and intuitive decision-making skills related to pain management. Nurses with more clinical experience and higher levels of education reported significantly better critical thinking and intuitive decision-making skills than less experienced and less educated nurses. Nurses with intuitive decision-making modes reported significantly better levels of critical thinking than nurses with analytical or flexible analytical-intuitive decision-making modes.

Critical care nurses were found to have ineffective critical thinking and intuitive decision-making skills related to pain management, which may lead to poor patient outcomes. Gaining more in-depth understanding of nurses' critical thinking and decision-making skills and their associated factors is crucial for achieving effective pain management in critical care settings.