NURSING EDUCATION AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO DECISION-MAKING AND RISK TAKING IN THE PROVISION OF PAIN RELIEF MEDICATION BY THE OBSTETRICAL NURSE.
Contributors: Wayne State University.
Published: 1984
Number of pages: 155
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this study was to examine how the nurse makes decisions and takes risks in the provision of pain relief. Institutional as well as personal goals were identified as they relate to how and why decisions are made in the work place.

Getzels and Guba (1957) discussed the conduct of social behaviour in a hierarchial setting. The elements of institution, role and expectations describe the normative or nomothetic attributes of activity in a social system, whereas individual, personality and need disposition describe the idiographic or personal attributes of activity in a social system.

Four hypotheses were tested at the .05 level of statistical confidence: (1) Nurses who have a strong self identity use idiographic goals as guides to nursing actions. (2) Nurses who have a low self identity use nomothetic goals as a guide to nursing action. (3) There is statistically significant difference related to the use of nomothetic and idiographic goals and years of experience in nursing. (4) There is statistically significant difference related to the use of nomothetic goals and idiographic goals and the educational preparation of the nurse. Hypotheses 1 and 2 were rejected. Hypotheses 3 and 4 were accepted.

A survey questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 600 registered obstetrical nurses in the Province of Ontario, Canada. The statistical tests used were the mean, frequencies, standard deviation, chi-square and the analysis of variance.

Nurses are reluctant to make decisions and to take risks. Nurses do not use the nursing process to assist them in their decision making. Experience did illustrate a statistical significance in the making of decisions. Nurses use a combination of idiographic and nomothetic goals in the performance of their nursing activities.

Nursing schools must examine the length of time the student is in the clinical settings in relation to the school's objective to develop effective decision makers upon graduation.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-12, Section: B, page: 3773.

Thesis (ED.D.)--WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY, 1984.

School code: 0254.