2. Nursing Decision Making Nursing Decision Making An Integrated Programme of Research to Maximise the Effectiveness of Clinical Nursing Resources A Health Research Board Research Programme, 2002-2007 Co-directors Professor P Anne Scott Dublin City University (DCU) E-mail: anne.scott@dcu.ie Professor Pearl Treacy University College Dublin NUI (UCD) E-mail: pearl.treacy@ucd.ie Research Team Dr P Mac Neela, DCU Dr A Hyde, UCD Dr M Butler, UCD Contact - DCU Sue Mc Govern, MSc, BSc, RGN E-mail: susan.mcgovern@dcu.ie (Research Assistant) Contact - UCD Elizabeth Laffan, MSN E-mail: elizabeth.laffan@ucd.ie (Research Assistant) University College Dublin Dublin City University

3. The purpose of the programme is to examine the decision- making that underpins the nursing contribution to health and social care at individual, interpersonal and organisational levels. Clinical judgement and decision-making in nursing is related to key components of effective nursing care, including: The phenomena nurses use to understand their patients/clients, such as nursing diagnoses; Health maintenance activities and deliberative therapeutic interventions that nurses carry out; Outcomes associated with nursing care, such as nursing- sensitive patient outcomes. Between 2002-2007, the research team will examine the basis to nursing decision-making and develop clinical applications to support an evidence-based approach to clinical nursing practice. The Health Research Board has awarded a research team at the School of Nursing, DCU, and the School of Nursing and Midwifery Studies, UCD, the first Research Programme in Nursing in Ireland, in Nursing Decision-Making. The research will focus on two areas: Nursing Minimum Data Set (NMDS) A data set tool will be developed to systematically analyse nursing phenomena, activities, and outcomes, including user satisfaction with care. The NMDS tool will be used in community/institutional and general nursing/mental health nursing settings, and will be developed using methods such as organisational studies of decision making and focus groups. Clinical judgement and decision making Nursing decision-making will be analysed from a cognitive perspective, giving an insight into the sources of information that nurses draw on in forming judgements and inferences, and the structures/processes that guide information use in decision-making.