Decision-Making Based on Intuition of Nurses: A Literature Review

Abstract

Purpose: This study was carried out to summarize the trend of research on nurses' decision making based on intuition and clarify research subjects for the future.
Methods: I searched studies published by September 2017 through PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and Ichushi-Web (the Japan Medical Abstracts Society) utilizing “intuition”, “intuitive”, “decision-making”, “nursing”, and “nurses” as keywords, and selected 22 studies for review.
Results: According to analysis of the 22 studies, we extracted three categories: decision making based on intuition and the experience; decision making based on intuition in nursing practice; and strategy to cultivate decision making based on intuition. Only exploratory and descriptive studies were available. No intervention research was identified.
Conclusion: It is necessary to collaborate with other disciplines in order to explore the thought process of the decision making based on intuition, and to present the structure concretely and concisely.