COMPARISON OF THE DIFFERENCES IN PROBLEM SOLVING BETWEEN NOVICE AND EXPERT NURSES.
Contributors: State University of New York at Buffalo.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 241
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The problem of this investigation was to study the effects of differences in the degree of knowledge acquired within the domain of nursing on the problem-solving process of nurses in planning patient care. It also explored the differences in the problem-solving process of individuals with differing levels of nursing expertise. The question was asked: What are the quantifiable and qualitative differences in nursing care planning by individuals with differing levels of expertise? The quantifiable variables addressed were: key features, patient problems, subproblems, inferences, amount of knowledge in chunks and time. The qualitative variables were: general approach or strategy, focus on deep or surface structure and stages in the problem-solving process.

Novice I or beginner subjects were six Juniors in a baccalaureate nursing program; Novice II or intermediate subjects were Seniors, and Experts were professional nurses with several years experience and graduates from that same program. They were given three hypothetical patient case studies as stimulus materials and a "think-aloud" protocol was used.

Those areas showing significant difference were: experts identified more key features, and more subproblems, drew more inferences and had more knowledge in their chunks than novices. The intermediate novice group took more time than the beginner or expert groups to complete their care plans. There was no significant difference among the groups in numbers of identified problems or chunks.

Qualitatively, experts' approach to developing their care plans focussed on their technique for doing the plan; intermediates focussed more on future nursing actions. Both intermediate and expert groups focussed more on deep vs. surface structure than did the beginners. All three groups appeared to use a similar process in their problem-solving: all appeared to evaluate the numerous cues in the case studies and classify them into smaller numbers of patient problems.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-07, Section: B, page: 2260.

Thesis (PH.D.)--STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BUFFALO, 1985.

School code: 0656.