Nurses’ clinical decision-making models in the care of older adults: A cross-sectional study

Abstract Clinical decision-making is referred to as a correct judgment based on knowledge and cognitive skills. It has an effective role in provid- ing safe and effective nursing care. Often these decision-making skills are based on critical thinking and evidence-based practice. Therefore, due to the importance of the present issue, this study aimed to assess the nurses’ clinical decision-making models in the care of older adults. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 384 nurses working in the teaching hospitals of Gorgan University of Medical Sciences in 2021. Data was collected by the standard questionnaire of clinical decision-making model. Pearson's correlation coefficient test was used to evaluate the relationship between clinical decision making and study variables. Also, Mann–Whitney U test was used to evaluate the difference between clinical decision making and study variables. The mean age and work experience of the participants were 32.2 (SD=1.5) and 9.1 (SD=1.7) years, respectively. The mean score of clinical decision-making among the nurses was 70.74 (SD=4.54). Most of the clinical decision-making models in nurses were found to be intuitive (75.5%). There was not a significant relationship between clinical decision-making model and the variables of age (P=0.47), work experience (P=0.16), and average working hours per month (P=0.93). Also, there was not a significant difference between the decision-making model and the variables of gender (P=0.6) and marital status (P=0.54). Considering the high level of clinical decision-making, it can be argued that correct decision-making makes the patient’s recovery faster and reduces the length of hospital stay. The advantages of correct decision- making include reducing treatment costs and lowering environmental stress and contamination with hospital infections.