The Clock Model: A Tool for Clinical Reasoning in the Emergency Department

• Clinical reasoning is a vital but difficult skill for nurse practitioners to learn.
• The clock model is a tool to teach clinical reasoning in the emergency room.
• The clock represents time and urgency for the golden periods of critical care.
• Times represent a stepwise, systematic approach to the process of reasoning.
• The model incorporates advanced nursing and emergency care specific content.

Clinical reasoning is a vital and difficult skill for nurse practitioners to learn and to teach. This article presents a tool, the Clock Model, for teaching this process to nurse practitioner students in the emergency department. The urgency of time and a systematic approach to the process of clinical reasoning are described and discussed with specific application to advanced nursing practice and emergency care.