Doing the Right Thing: Nurses?? Ability to Make Clinical Decisions

Abstract

The author describes an evaluation of the effectiveness of simulations developed to teach and assess nurses' clinical decisionmaking skills. The simulations, a series of videotaped patient situations, provided opportunity for participants to identify the nature of the patient problem and decide on a course of nursing action. Nurses' educational preparation and experience correlated with the number of correct decisions. Experienced baccalaureate nurses got the most “right” answers. The article also includes recommendations for using this method of evaluation and for improving nurses' clinical judgment skills.