Nursing

Clinical Judgment

Nursing is a demanding profession that demands nurses to deal with various
difficulties relating to each patient's health, complications, and daily improvements. A nurse's
decision-making is thus critical to the patient's overall well-being. This is because judgment
serves as the guiding force for all choices made by nurses and other healthcare workers.
Nursing is a profession that places a high value on judgment, making it essential for a nurse
to have observational solid and reasoning abilities as a precondition for making good,
dependable and clinical choices. As a result, clinical judgment is the conclusion reached after
a thorough process of seeing, pondering, and evaluating their observations or data is
completed. It is a vital step in learning the skill and capacity to reflect on and apply
information to recognize and meet the unique requirements of each patient. Among the topics
covered in this article are the elements that impact clinical judgment, the function of intuition
in clinical judgment, and the process by which intuition is learned.

A variety of elements and characteristics influences clinical judgment. Various forms
of knowledge are necessary to apply to each unique circumstance that a patient takes to the
clinic. The information is obtained during training and then put into practice when needed.
However, some of the knowledge is acquired during practice and via experience in some
instances. The learned information must be utilized subconsciously to improve the rapid and
prompt detection of patient requirements and select the most appropriate solution (Tanner,
2006). Another element that impacts clinical judgment is prior experience or familiarity with
the patient or the particular circumstance in which the patient is placed. In this form of
clinical judgment, the patient's history and specific needs are considered to make appropriate
and timely judgments on her situation or nursing requirements.

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When faced with a familiar issue or circumstance, one's clinical judgment is aided
since one is equipped with the necessary information; as a result, the nurse may react with
intuition and quickness. This is made feasible since the nurse is already familiar with the
procedure. The fact that analytical thinking is the initial stage in developing clinical judgment
in nursing for new nurses must be kept in mind (Woolley & Kostopoulou, 2013). As a novice
nurse, you must engage your reasoning abilities and be quite analytical. The next stage is
learning how to recognize practical circumstances, link them to abstract information, and
apply them to those situations.

By getting to know their patients in two different ways, a nurse's professional
judgment is enhanced by understanding how a patient's reaction pattern manifests itself.
Second, by getting to know the patient in person. When a nurse understands the patient, she
can customize and individualize services and interventions to meet the patient's specific
requirements. In addition, clinical assessments are impacted by the setting and environment
in which the nursing intervention occurs. In addition to textbook knowledge, familiarity with
the nursing unit and the usual workflow impact the nurses' judgments in this area. In this
way, the social setting, habits, and culture are significant in forming nurses' clinical
judgments and decisions. When a nurse is working in an unfamiliar area, it might be
challenging to recognize or assess a problem and act effectively.

A combination of elements forms clinical judgment. It is the input of a nurse that has
the most impact on the issue at hand, rather than abstract statistics or case knowledge on the
subject. Knowledge is also an essential component in making significant clinical decisions. A
nurse must understand each patient's unique requirements and features and their optimum
reaction. Their educational background and operating environment also influence a nurse's
clinical judgment. Nurses use a variety of approaches and thinking patterns to make the best

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judgments possible for their patients. It is also critical for the nurse to engage in frequent and
in-depth reflection on the breakdown of their clinical judgment to improve their clinical
judgment and clinical reasoning. This is especially true for new nurses. Finally, intuition is an
essential component of clinical judgment because it allows a nurse to quickly understand the
issue, make a rapid choice, and do more to aid the patient without reso