Clinical Decision Making of Nurses Working in Hospital Settings

This study analyzed nurses' perceptions of clinical decision making (CDM) in their clinical practice and compared differences in decision making related to nurse demographic and contextual variables. A cross-sectional survey was carried out with 2095 nurses in four hospitals in Norway. A 24-item Nursing Decision Making Instrument based on cognitive continuum theory was used to explore how nurses perceived their CDM when meeting an elective patient for the first time. Data were analyzed with descriptive frequencies, t-tests, Chi-Square test, and linear regression. Nurses' decision making was categorized into analytic-systematic, intuitive-interpretive, and quasi-rational models of CDM. Most nurses reported the use of quasi-rational models during CDM thereby supporting the tenet that cognition most often includes properties of both analysis and intuition. Increased use of intuitive-interpretive models of CDM was associated with years in present job, further education, male gender, higher age, and working in predominantly surgical units

Recovery from acute myocardial infarction in women

This paper is a review of the literature on recovery from acute myocardial infarction in women. The topic has been subdivided into three areas for presentation: cardiac rehabilitation, return to work and sexual activity. The exploration of the literature revealed the paucity of research on women, but some comparisons could be made between men and women. Compared to men, women appear to utilize cardiac rehabilitation programs less frequently than men and have higher dropout rates, they return to work less frequently and after a longer period of time and resume sexual activity after a longer period of time reporting more symptoms during and after the activity. Investigation of the literature showed that the recovery period for women is incompletely explored and that there is a critical need for research

Coronary heart disease risk factors in women

Although men and women share a number of coronary risk factors including age, hypertension, cigarette smoking, diabetes, obesity, plasma lipoprotein concentration, and family history, the overall impact of these factors on the incidence and clinical manifestations of coronary heart disease (CHD) may differ. Additional risk factors which solely impact upon women include the use of oral contraceptives, menopause, and postmenopausal hormones. The impact of psychosocial and behavioral factors on CHD risk in women requires further investigation given that our current knowledge of traditional risk factors alone inadequately predicts all cases of CHD