Authors
1 Tarbiat Modares
2 TUMS
Abstract
Introduction: Clinical judgement as a tool for professionals allows the nurses to play their roles and
explore their opinion. This necessitates clarification of the structure of clinical judgment. It is difficult to
give a unanimous definition for clinical judgement therefore, exploration of the structure of the concept is
necessary to understanding clinical judgment. The aim of this study is to explore the structure of clinical
judgment of nurses.
Method: This qualitative research was a grounded theory study based on purposed sampling. 18 clinical
nurses from Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences were interviewed. The interviews were transcribed
in Microsoft Word Office, and then the data were analyzed in MAXQDA2007. Constant comparison
analyses were used simultaneously with data collection.
Results: The participants in study include 9 men and 9 women, with at least 3 years of experience of
nursing in variable clinical settings. Final research findings could be discussed in five categories
including: complexity of definition of clinical judgment, context of clinical judgment, continuum of
clinical judgment, skills of nurse in clinical judgment, and achieve to professional criteria.
Conclusion: Despite the complexity of the concept in the literatures and the field of research, this study
could explore the structure of clinical judgment of nurses in the clinical arena. The results of this study
would be used to explore nurses' clinical judgment model, based on grounded theory.
Keywords
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