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Nursing prioritization of the patient need for care: A tacit knowledge embedded in the clinical decision‐making literature
Author(s) -
Lake Sarah,
Moss Cheryle,
Duke Jan
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
international journal of nursing practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.62
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1440-172X
pISSN - 1322-7114
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-172x.2009.01778.x
Subject(s) - prioritization , tacit knowledge , nursing , medicine , nursing care , knowledge management , computer science , management science , economics
Every day in clinical settings, nurses practise in complex and dynamic situations. Nurses work to achieve emergent order in these situations through nursing prioritization of the patient need for care. As direct research on nursing prioritization had not been reported, a study, using critical realism as method, was designed to discern the profession's embedded understanding from within the clinical decision‐making literature. The research synthesizes a tacit knowledge on nursing prioritization of the patient need for care from key international literature (from 1966 to 2003). Nursing prioritization was discerned in both education and practice literatures; interrelationships between these and theoretical approaches were also identified. Nursing prioritization of the patient need for care was revealed both as a non‐sequential decision‐making process throughout unfolding patient situations and as an advanced skill of nursing practice. Increasing confidence with this skill is the hallmark of developing expertise.