Module 4: Question 2

1. How does nursing data quality relate to decision support?

Nursing data quality is very important to decision support. Accurate data and pertinent information gathered during an assessment and then charted appropriately is essential to making quality decisions. Without sound data to build your decision on, then like we discussed in the previous questions, your decision is going to be based on experience and intuition which is not the most accurate way to make decisions in clinical practice. This data is also essential in the development of the decision support tools. In order to help us make decisions, we need to know what kind of data we are gathering and the best way to obtain that information to get consistent and accurate results.

Module 4: Question 1

1. How did the readings influence your perception of your own clinical decision-making? How do we reconcile the value of nursing experience with known heuristics and biases used in human decision making?

As I was reading the articles regarding clinical decision making, I found it very interesting for an article to be so closely evaluating something that is part of my everyday routine. It has been challenging for me to look at my own decision making and see how these heuristics come into play. I firmly believe in evidence based practice, but I also know that experience and intuition play a huge role in my decision making from day to day. I believe there has to be a conscience effort by the individual to try and recognize their own heuristics and see them for what they are. Some of the techniques described in the Thompson article supported this idea, when he discusses the overconfidence scenario of the nurse being 90% sure of plan of action that the nurse should stop for a moment and think, do I still think this is the right thing if do if I was only 75% sure. Nurses need to look at themselves and there own thought processes to examine if they are making their decisions based solely on experience or a mixture of evidence and experience which I view as ideal.

Module 3

What strengths were highlighted in the results of your multiple intelligence test? How do you interpret these results? What technologies might you incorporate to augment your personal learning based on these results?

My two highest areas in the multiple intelligence test were Musical and Interpersonal. I agree with and strongly identify with both of those areas. The other areas of intelligence ended up being pretty equal without one being really low. I feel the musical intelligence makes me an auditory learner and with the interpersonal I prefer to be able to interact with other people and share ideas back and forth.
Based on these results I should find ways to incorporate more auditory connections into my learning. I could search for podcasts or video taped lectures, or find a program that would read aloud my text books. For the interpersonal strength, I feel that the Polycom system we use for the distance program is very helpful because I am able to ask questions and interact with other students rather than simply watching a powerpoint or reading in the text.