Polish Journal of Public Health

Original Article, Pol J Public Health 2019;129(3): 87-94

Bogumiła Kosicka¹, Anna Ksykiewicz-Dorota², Kinga Kulczycka⁵,
Ewa Stychno⁵, Katarzyna Piasecka³, Bartłomiej Drop⁴

¹ Chair and Department of Management in Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Medical University of Lublin, Poland

² Chair and Department of Management in Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Medical University of Lublin, Poland

³ Department of Family Medicine and Community Nursing, Chair of Oncology and Environmental Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Medical University of Lublin, Poland

⁴ Department of Medical Informatics and Statistics with the E-learning Lab, Faculty of Health Sciences Medical University of Lublin, Poland

⁵ Faculty of Science and Health, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland

10.2478/pjph-2019-0021

© 2019 Medical University of Lublin. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonComercial-No Derivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/)

Abstract

Introduction. Identification of the process of decision making by nurses is a basis for better preparation of future nurses to an independent, and at the same time, effective decision making. This is related with the provision of high quality nursing services.

Aim. The objective of the presented study was identification of the decision making models applied by Polish nurses, and investigation of the relationship between specificity of work in individual wards and the applied model of decision making.

Material and methods. The research instrument was the Finnish 56-item questionnaire form examining decision making by nurses. This questionnaire was translated and adjusted to the Polish conditions, and its psychometric properties were confirmed concerning validity and reliability. The study covered nurses employed in conservative treatment wards (n=977), surgical wards (n=361) and intensive care units (n=293); a total number of 1631 Polish nurses employed in the hospitals was examined .

Results. Analysis of data showed that nurses from various wards in the study applied four models of decision making: analyti­cal, intuitive, analytical-intuitive, and intuitive-analytical. Selection of the model used was associated with the specificity of work in individual wards.

Conclusions. The studies confirmed that during the process of decision making the nurses used both analytical and intuitive approaches, according to the type of ward and the specificity of the work of a nurse.

Keywords: decision makings models, nursing, hospital ward.