FETAL HEART RATE PATTERN ANALYSIS BY EXPERT AND NOVICE NURSES.
Contributors: State University of New York at Buffalo.
Published: 1995
Number of pages: 267
Subjects: Health Sciences, Education.; Education, Curriculum and Instruction.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This research was conducted to examine information processing differences between expert and novice labor and delivery nurses in electronic fetal heart rate pattern analysis. The study was based on cognitive psychology conceptualizations of individual differences in a complex-knowledge domain. Experts and novices demonstrate qualitative differences in their cognitive structure of specialized knowledge and skill (Chase & Simon, 1973; Chi, Feltovich, & Glaser, 1981). Latent cognitive structure, or schema, is inferred by performance on categorizing tasks. Novice schemata are literal and explicit in nature and expert schemata are conceptual and implicit in nature.

A free-sort (F-Sort) categorizing task with 20 fetal heart rate patterns was used to elicit nurses' judgments of homogeneous categories (Miller, et.al., 1986). Patterns were authentic monitor strips, 10 minutes in length, representing a range of typical characteristics. Each nurse was tested individually and directed to sort the patterns into categories, combine and divide initial categories into a hierarchical structure, apply category labels, and identify categorizing-cues in the patterns.

The voluntary convenience sample consisted of seven novice nurses with $\le$one year experience in labor and delivery and 16 expert nurses with $\ge$five years experience, from one urban hospital using continuous FHR monitoring. Subject attributes of nursing education, age, previous nursing experience, specialty certification, and general ability (vocabulary test) were measured.

Both quantitative categorical analysis (Frantz, 1967) and qualitative content analysis were used to contrast expert and novice category structure and theme. Novice categories were explicit in nature with an Assessment Cue theme, and expert categories and labels were implicit in nature with Inference and Strategy themes. An unanticipated finding was that novice category themes resembled the assessment phase of the Nursing Process model of nursing judgment, and expert category themes resembled analysis and intervention phases. Both groups identified explicit visual features as categorizing cues. No significant differences were found in subject attributes.

This study extends cognitive theory into the domain of fetal heart rate pattern analysis and contributes to theory on expert-novice differences in nursing. The findings have implications for differentiating appropriate education for novice and experienced nurses.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-07, Section: B, page: 3677.

Thesis (PH.D.)--STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BUFFALO, 1995.

School code: 0656.