Information sources used in decision making: considerations for simulation development

Simulation tasks, together with think aloud techniques are often used to research the cognitive processes individuals go through when making a decision or solving a problem. They have been utilised to a certain degree within nursing. A study was carried out to try and identify the sources of information nurses in acute medical and surgical wards used to make assessment judgements. A sample of 114 nurses were interviewed, and their responses analysed using content analysis. Four main sources of information were identified, with verbal interaction being the source of information most frequently mentioned by the subjects. The content of material presented in simulations is normally tested using techniques such as expert panels. However, this paper suggests that of equal importance may be the form of presentation or source of that information. It is suggested that in order to increase the validity of information obtained from simulation tasks, the form of presentation of information to the subject should also be considered.