Expanding the scope of decision-making research for nursing and midwifery practice

Decision making embedded in clinical situations is studied to inform nursing and midwifery practice and to enhance clinical effectiveness. To date this knowledge has mainly been derived from classical decision-making research approaches that are limited in capturing cognition in rapidly changing ‘real-world’ clinical environments. A naturalistic decision making approach can strengthen the ecological validity of descriptive investigations in certain dynamic clinical decision situations that include urgency and complexity. This paper presents a discussion about naturalistic decision making, its relevance for studying certain clinical decision situations in the ‘real world’ of nursing and midwifery practice and its application in a midwifery decision-making situation. In conclusion classical decision-making research approaches can be extended to include the naturalistic decision making approach that can capture decision making in dynamic clinical situations and show the underlying knowledge that distinguishes more experienced clinicians.