Decision Making Theories for Nursing Professionals

Running head: DECSION MAKING THEORIES
DECSION MAKING THEORIES
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DECSION MAKING THEORIES
Introduction:
Clinical decision-making can be defined as the contextual, continuous act and an ever
evolving procedure. In the procedure, data is gathered and is there by interpreted and then
evaluated to select an evidence-base of a particular action for a task (Johansen and O’brien
2016). During the time of making clinical judgments, nursing professionals are seen to draw
different types of information from many different sources that would also include their formal
nursing education as well as from their experience that is usually gained over a period in their
practice. The clinical decision-making can be therefore defined as the effective choosing
between different alternative and can be considered as a skill, which helps in improvement of the
nurses gain of experiences both as a nurse and in a specific specialty (Standing 2017).
Researchers are of the opinion that clinical decision making mainly needs good quality judgment
that should include critical thinking. The definition of critical thinking in nursing is therefore
described as “Critical thinkers in nursing practice the cognitive skills of analyzing, applying
standards, discriminating, information seeking, logical reasoning, predicting and transforming
knowledge” (Yeates et al. 2016). Many of the researchers have also define decision making as
the procedure where professionals use to gather information about the patients and thereby
evaluate them and make judgments which result in the provision of the nursing care. Qualified
nurses should be able to use effective decision-making skills to provide safe and effective
nursing care. Over the course of time, researchers have put different types of decision-making
theories forward. This assignment would mainly be discussing about the different types of
decision-making theories that can be used by nurses in different scenarios to make effective
decision and thereby help patients to get proper treatment and expect better quality life.

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DECSION MAKING THEORIES
Information processing theory:
The basic concept of the information processing theory is that individual human beings
have minds that are like computers or information processors. They can simply not be considered
to provide responses to stimulus that are present in the environmental surrounding. The human
brain is seen to receive information just like a computer. Information that is gathered from the
senses as input can then be processed and then stored by the brain (Decoux et al. 2016). This
information then helps in delivering output that mainly comes out with the process of behavioral
response. The information-processing model is also called the psychological theory and is much
used in the research of the medical decision-making. It is also referred to as the scientific
approach to for effective decision-making and is also termed as the hypothetic-deductive
approach. In the nursing profession, there are four main stages of this process. The first one is the
gathering of preliminary clinical information about the patient and then generating tentative
hypothesis about the condition of the patient (Garner, Boyard and Gray 2015). Then the
professionals interpret the initially registered cues in the light of the tentative hypothesis and then
weight the decision alternatives. This is then followed by the choosing of the one that seems to
fit best in the light of the evidence collected. One of the drawbacks of this hypothesis deductive
approach is that it may result in inaccurate structures sometimes that may have wrong
probabilities that may remain attached with the with the results in the invalidation of the
outcomes. Sometimes the hypothesis may be wrong and this may lead to a rise of a proposition,
which may be fundamentally incorrect.
A model of working memory or short-term memory was introduced that mainly
comprises of three important components. These are the selection of the information, effective
method of processing, meaning and then ultimately deciding the components of the information

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DECSION MAKING THEORIES
that had to be transferred to the long-term memory or to forget it. Two of the counterparts of this
system is the auditory loop where the auditory information is saved and the visual-spatial
checkpad where the visual information is proceeded. The information that is obtained is
maintained in the short-term memory mainly by two procedures. The first is the maintenance
process that occurs through repetition of the information and the other is elaboration that refers
to the organization of the information through chunking (Sliakbari et al. 2015). This mode of
information processing theory cannot be depended by the nursing professionals for decision-
making. Different nurses have different varying levels of cognitive load. Therefore, those nurses
who cannot take enough cognitive loads in the rehabilitation department, it may lead to negative
outcomes (Cocks et al. 2016). Again, one of the features is that when the information is repeated
many times, the information becomes automatic. At that time, it does not require cognitive
resources. Moreover, this system helps in focusing on particular information and that is really
important and relevant. Often nurses in the rehabilitation ward have to conduct many activities
that are physically and mentally strenuous. Starting from manual handling to making of beds,
medication, conducting activities of daily lives of the patient and many others are also the duties
of nurses in rehabilitation wards (Tiffen et al. 2014). Therefore, in such times of cognitive load
where different information is poured from different members of the multidisciplinary team in
the wards, the nurse may become filled with cognitive load and hence the information may slip
resulting in issue in decision-making (Krishnan 2018). However, one of the good features is that
information, which is often repeated in the ward like importance of effective documentation
about the progression of health of the patient is often declared by nurse managers. Hence, this
information may remain stored and thus not require cognitive resources. With the help of this