Module 4 question 1

Reading the Thompson article made me pause and think about how I have developed my clinical decision making. I have been a nurse in my specialty area for almost 30 y ears, in that time I have practiced in one large private hospital and two University Hospitals. Like most, I have asked many colleagues opinions about clinical situations to help me make a decision on how to care for a patient. Although the readings cautioned us to recognize the unreliability of anecdotal advice, I think this process is critical to developing clinical decision making skills. Most of us learn from the collective sharing of cases, especially in the description of the difficult picture a patient presented and how the nurse worked through the problem. So I think it would be foolish to diminish the role of sharing information. I think what is important is the weight a nurse gives that piece of information. In thinking back I when I was pretty “green” this advice strongly influenced my decision making, now I use that information a lot more judiciously.
In thinking of an effective way to reconcile the influence of experience with its known bias, maybe several approaches could be considered. Pairing novice nurses with well-rounded mentors, ensuring that work area standards and policies reflect evidence-based practices and routine audits of care practices to evaluate outcomes would be effective methods to promote evidence-based practice.