Characteristics of intuitive nurses

A description is provided of the process used to verify characteristics of intuitive nurses that had been reported in the literature. These characteristics supplied the framework for construction of the Miller Intuitiveness Instrument (MII) reported earlier (Miller, 1993). Evidence for validity of the MII was provided in the Miller (1993) study by examining factor analyses and correlations with the intuitive component of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The following characteristics were subsequently verified: Intuitive nurses are willing to act on their intuitions, are skilled clinicians, and incorporate a spiritual component in their practices. In addition, intuitive nurses express an interest in the abstract nature of things and are risk takers. Intuitive nurses prefer intuition to sensing (as reflected by the MBTI) as a way to take in information. They are extroverted and express confidence in their intuitions. Likewise, nurses who delay making decisions until all the information is in are more intuitive than those who make decisions abruptly.