Abstract: The transition of patients from intensive care to the ward environment is a regular occurrence in intensive care. Today patients are often transferred earlier and sicker due to the demands for intensive care beds. This results in patients with higher acuity being cared for in the wards. Here ward nurses have to meet the ongoing complex demands of caring for higher acuity patients, alongside managing high patient-to-nurse ratios, staffing concerns, and varying levels of experienced nurses. This research explored the experiences of ward nurses receiving patients transferred from intensive care. The aims were to identify any areas of concern, highlight specific problems that occur on transition and to address what information is pertinent to ward nurses when receiving patients from intensive care. A qualitative descriptive methodology using focus groups was utilised to gather information about these experiences. Three focus groups were held with ward nurses from various wards within the study setting hospital. All participants had considerable contact with intensive care and were familiar with the processes of transferring patients. Five themes emerged from the focus groups – Patients as intensive care staff say they are; Time to prepare the biggest thing; Documentation as a continuation of patient care; They forget what its like; and Families, a need to know about them. The theme Patients as intensive care staff say they are relates to reliable information sharing focused on the patient, their needs and condition. Participants expressed their concern that patients were not always in the condition that the intensive care staff stated they were on the referral. Having adequate time to prepare was considered important for the majority of ward nurses receiving patients from intensive care. Documentation was highlighted in the theme Documentation as a continuation of patient care particularly in relation to fluid balances and vital sign history. The theme They forget what its like suggests there is a perception that intensive care nurses have a lack of understanding of what the ward staff can actually manage. Decreased staffing levels during certain shift patterns and a lack of appropriately experienced staff on the wards is a common concern for ward nurses. Ward nurses also recognised that caring for families was part of their role. Patients and families may respond differently to the transfer process and their inclusion in transfer planning was seen as essential. Communication was a reoccurring element throughout all themes.The author concludes that communication is the paramount factor that impacts on a 'smooth transition' for ward nurses. A 'smooth transition' refers to the transfer of patients from intensive care to the next level of care. Subsequently, nurses' perceptions need to change, whereby transfer planning from ICU should be the focus rather than discharge planning. Transfer planning and education for all nursing staff is vital if the transfer process is to be improved. Consequently, transitional care within the context of ICU aims to ensure minimal disruption and optimal continuity of care for the patient. The knowledge gained from this research may provide better understanding of the multifaceted issues linked with transitional care that may be adapted for a wider range of patients in various clinical environments.

Abstract: The aim of this research paper is to explore the processes of clinical decision-making in relation to emergency nurses and to examine the educational requirements for the development of clinical decision-making skills. Clinical decision-making is foundational to professional nursing practice. It is the expectation of the profession and the organisations in which nurses work that appropriate clinical decision-making will occur. Patients also rightly expect, when being cared for by nurses, that the clinical decisions pertaining to their care will be optimal.

Abstract: This paper explores the relationship between evidence, decision tools, and the effectiveness of the nursing contribution to health services. It examines a continuum of decision-making within the international trend of the Effectiveness Movement, drawing on international literature and local experience. It draws on the concept of explicit evidence-based decision-making, the guideline development movement as exemplified through the New Zealand Guidelines Group, information technology in decision support, and the challenges of an evidential approach to nursing. This article is based on a paper given at 'The Pride and Passion of Professional Nursing Practice' College of Nurses' Aotearoa (NZ) Conference, Rotorua, 8-9 October 1998.

Abstract: The author explores possible approaches to the ethical dilemma confronting nurses of critically ill premature infants with an uncertain or futile outcome despite aggressive neonatal intensive care. A case history illustrates the issues. The morality of nursing decisions based on deontological and utilitarian principles is examined, as are the concepts of beneficence and non-maleficence. A fusion of virtue ethics and the ethic of care is suggested as appropriate for ethical decision-making in the neonatal intensive care environment.

Abstract: New graduate nurses, particularly in the first year of clinical practice, face challenges with making clinical decisions about patient care. A review of the literature revealed no studies that reported using fundamental qualitative descriptive methodology to investigate new graduate nurses' clinical decision making. Aspects of decision making by new graduates have been studied using observational and interview methods, the findings from which have been interpreted using various theoretical decision making models. There has been little research outside of the context of critical care or intensive care units, but anecdotal reports in 2006 from the New Zealand Nursing Entry to Practice Programme (NetP) coordinators network suggest that new graduates are seldom employed in critical care or intensive care units in New Zealand. Nursing educators involved in undergraduate nurse training and NetP programmes need to understand how new graduates perceive, experience and manage decision making in clinical practice, in order to assist them to develop and refine those skills. There is a need for studies utilising fundamental qualitative descriptive methodology in order to explore the experiences of new graduates' decision making in clinical practice. The author notes that the topic is particularly relevant in light of the introduction of the national NetP programmes framework in New Zealand, and to her role as a NetP programme coordinator. This dissertation examines the relevant literature about decision making by new graduates and the research methods that were used, and concludes that fundamental qualitative descriptive method is a highly appropriate method by which to study new graduates' decision making.

Abstract: Effective nursing prioritisation of the patient need for care is integral to daily nursing practice but there is no formal acknowledgement or study of this concept. Utilising the retroductive research strategy of critical realism, this thesis explores the nursing literature for the tacit knowledge of the discipline about nursing prioritisation and proposes a 'fit' for nursing prioritisation of the patient need for care within the bigger picture of nurse clinical decision-making. The tacit knowledge discerned within the literature indicates that nurses use discretionary judgment and ongoing assessment to determine the relative importance of the many aspects of individual patient situations as they unfold. Such nursing prioritisation takes place concurrently between the competing or even conflicting needs of the several individual patient presentations within the nurse's caseload. Varied frames of reference within different practice settings create specific imperatives on this dynamic and non-sequential process. Starting with an initial set of studies in the 1960s, study of clinical decision-making in nursing has created a significant body of knowledge encompassing a range of approaches. Nursing prioritisation of the patient need for care is most readily discerned in the interpretive perspective and in the plain language descriptions of nurse decision-making. Within the selected literature it is apparent that nursing prioritisation of the patient need for care is an advanced skill of nursing that is developed in practice and honed through experiential learning.

Abstract: This paper reports on a literature review that examines how health professionals (mainly nurses) recognise the signs of physical deterioration in their patients. It includes discussion of how nurses' clinical decision making skills influence how physical deterioration is identified and determines what changes in the delivery of care could have an impact on emergency department patients at risk of life threatening deterioration.