Patient monitoring as a predictor of blood culture results in a tertiary neonatal intensive care unit

We present a mesoergonomic approach to the early detection of neonatal sepsis, analyzing clinical data for 4999 patients from a neo-natal intensive care unit to predict positive culture results. The Apgar score at birth predicted positive results. For neonates with poor and intermediate Apgar scores, culture results for monitored infants were more likely to be positive than those for unmonitored infants. Thus, the medical staff tended to monitor infants who eventually had a greater chance for positive test results. A cost-effectiveness analysis indicated that for infants with high Apgar scores, the physician should decide whether to obtain a blood culture, based on the patient's characteristics. For infants with lower Apgar scores, it may be advisable to obtain a blood culture whenever one decides to monitor a neonate. The study demonstrates that staff decisions regarding a patient can serve as input for further clinical decision-making.

Patient decision-making personas: An application of a patient-centered cognitive task analysis (P-CTA)

Personas can be used to understand patterns of variation in patients' performance of cognitive work, particularly self-care decision making. In this study, we used a patient-centered cognitive task analysis (P-CTA) to develop self-care decision-making personas. We collected data from 24 older adults with chronic heart failure and 14 support persons, using critical incident and fictitious scenario interviews. Qualitative analyses produced three personas but revealed that individuals exemplify different personas across situations. The Rule-Following persona seeks clear rules, exercises caution under uncertainty, and grounds actions in confidence in clinician experts. The Researching persona seeks information to gain better understanding, invents strategies, and conducts experiments independently or with clinicians. The Disengaging persona does not actively seek rules or information and does not attempt to reduce uncertainty or conduct experiments. We discuss the situational nature of personas, their use in design, and the benefits of P-CTA for studying patient decision making.

Deriving the Practice-Primed Decision Model from a naturalistic decision-making perspective for acute care nursing research

AIM

The purpose of this article is to present the derivation of the Practice Primed Decision Model from a naturalistic decision-making framework for use in guiding future nursing decision-making research.

BACKGROUND

Acute care nurses make decisions in demanding environments under the influence of many factors. The influence of these factors on nurse decision-making is not well understood leading to gaps in understanding how to best support acute care nurse decision-making.

METHODS

The strategy of theory derivation was used in the development of a new model for use in nursing research. This model incorporates important elements identified in naturalistic decision making, a Recognition Primed Decision Model and an integrative review of nurse decision-making literature.

CONCLUSION

The new model, Practice Primed Decision Model, provides a new perspective to guide nurse decision-making research. This model includes factors influential to the nurse decision-making process that is more realistic in time limited, high stakes decision-making situations.

Expert Medical Decision-Making: How the Data-Frame Theory Can Explain Physician Sense-Making

The major task of physicians is decision making. This is often done in time pressured situations. The traditional theory of decision making does not reflect this reality and naturalistic decision making is a more appropriate model. The first step is to make sense of the patient or the problem and the Data-Frame Theory of Klein seems to be the best model. This model has significant implications in the way we view clinical information systems, communication and medical education.