RUNNING HEAD:CLINICAL NURSING JUDGEMENT 1

Clinical Nursing Judgement

Brock A. Wooten

Youngstown State University

CLINICAL NURSING JUDGEMENT 2

Clinical Nursing Judgement is the ability to make logical, rational decisions and decide

whether a given action is right or wrong. Clinical judgment the process by which the nurse

decides on data to be collected about a client, makes an interpretation of the data, arrives at a

Nursing Diagnosis, and identifies appropriate nursing actions; this involves problem solving,

decision making, and critical thinking. (Global, 2019) This type of judgment is used daily in

nursing. Sometimes, nurses don't even realize that they are using this judgement due to

practicing it so many times in the medical setting. This process in engrained in students and up-

and-coming nurses everywhere. It's the core of care that translates into consistent and

personable plan of care. Clinical judgement should be of high focus due to the ever-changing

and high intensity field of nursing. You need to be able to make quick and correct choice in a

high acuity situation. By following the correct clinical nursing judgement process, a nurse will be

able to successfully problem solve a specific case.

Student nurses are incorporated into high-fidelity simulations throughout the academic

career. This helps develop their skills in high-acuity scenarios without the risk of harming a

patient. As I have experienced some of these scenarios, I feel that if under the correct

supervision they can be very beneficial to my personalized learning experience. These scenarios

can give a student the ability to go into a situation that they have not yet experienced. I

personally had an experience relating to a birth that significantly reduced my awareness with

the birthing process. Specifically, what to do in a situation the involved an anoxic infant. It adds

to the confidence of being able to give care in a professional and correct manner. According to

a study completed by Hallin,” Three significant correlations were found between the team
CLINICAL NURSING JUDGEMENT 3

achievements and the students’ learning style preferences: significant negative correlation with

‘Structure’ and ‘Kinesthetic’ at the individual level, and positive correlation with the ‘Tactile’

variable.” I am able to verify personally that I believe a tactile learning environment is the best

for understanding clinical nursing judgement.

A study occurred in South Africa that focused on Clinical Nursing Judgment and the

ability for nurses to become critical thinkers in the nursing care. According to Graan, “Clarifying

the concept of clinical judgement within the clinical nursing environment is not easy because of

the multiple facets of the concept within the clinical nursing environment. The method of

concept analysis offers a substantial contribution to continuing productive activity in this

regard. Through further triangulation of data, nursing education may be able to develop a

strong conceptual foundation to enhance efforts towards the continuing development of

knowledge in nursing and the achievement of its goals. The concept of clinical judgement is a

very important skill in the clinical decision-making process and can improve nursing care

delivery in South Africa. With this article the author provides an overview of the concept of

clinical judgement by promoting an understanding of it which will enable nurse educators to

develop a teaching/learning strategy which will help nursing students to develop their skills in

nursing.” (Graan, A. C. V., Williams, M. J., & Koen, M. P., 2016.) In this study, the focus was on

observing a concrete meaning of Clinical Nursing Judgment. Also, they were attempting to

formulate concepts and characteristics of clinical judgement in theory. I found it interesting this

study noted the want and need for autonomous and accountable nursing care. It also had a
CLINICAL NURSING JUDGEMENT 4

focal aspect pertaining to students. It concentrates on the teaching-learning techniques used by

nurse educators in attempt to increase the quality of nursing care.

According to Standing, they believe that current research methods are restrictive of the

development of the field of clinical judgement. They also believe that these methods are in

need of an overhaul to further progress the field. In areas where there is access to a large

amount of information to invent a plan-of-care, this information needs to be used in plan that

incorporates outside variable. This doesn’t seem to be the case in 3 rd world countries where the

access to information is quite difficult and some cases impossible to obtain. Certain facets of

care such as research, clinical experience, patient experience, and information from the local

contexts need incorporated to successfully make the correct care plan. Obtaining as much

information as possible would also increase the success of a care plan in most environments

and general cases. This all is ideal for a “perfect world” situation too. The reality is most

facilities deal with a lack of nursing professionals or the patient to nurse ratio isn’t where it

adequately needs to be. This further increase the difficulty dealing with best and most

productive clinical nursing judgment. This creates the problem of identifying and treating the

patients based on a prioritizes level set by the nurse. In turn, many factors are involved in

influencing a nurse’s clinical judgement.

After reviewing a few articles pertaining to Clinical Nursing Judgement, it’s definitely

apparent there are some better ways to initially learn this process. The judgement process itself
CLINICAL NURSING JUDGEMENT 5

has a concrete foundation where nurses should decide the best care plan options in regard to

the patient’s outcome dependent on their specific scenario. Overall, there are many steps

required to make these decisions. This field of study is also constantly evolving due to

technological advances in healthcare along with newfound diagnoses and interventions.

CLINICAL NURSING JUDGEMENT 6

References
Standing, M. (2008), Clinical judgement and decision‐making in nursing – nine modes of
practice in a revised cognitive continuum. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 62: 124-134.
doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2007.04583.x

Graan, A. C. V., Williams, M. J., & Koen, M. P. (2016). Clinical judgement within the South
African clinical nursing environment: A concept analysis. Health SA Gesondheid, 21, 33–
45. doi: 10.4102/hsag.v21i0.932

Graan, A. C. V., & Williams, M. J. S. (2017). A conceptual framework to facilitate clinical

judgement in nursing: A methodological perspective. Health SA Gesondheid, 22, 275–
290. doi: 10.1016/j.hsag.2017.01.004

Clinical Judgement. (n.d.) Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing. (2012).
Retrieved February 28 2020 from https://medical-
dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/clinical+judgment

Hallin, K., Haggstrom, M., Backstrom, B., & Kristiansen, L. P. (2015). Correlations Between
Clinical Judgement and Learning Style Preferences of Nursing Students in the Simulation
Room. Global journal of health science, 8(6), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.5539/gjhs.v8n6p1