The cognitive processes underpinning clinical decision in triage assessment: A theoretical conundrum?

High quality clinical decision-making (CDM) has been highlighted as a priority across the nursing profession. Triage nurses, in the Accident and Emergency (A&E) department, work in considerable levels of uncertainty and require essential skills including: critical thinking, evaluation and decision-making. The content of this paper aims to promote awareness of how triage nurses make judgements and decisions in emergency situations. By exploring relevant literature on clinical judgement and decision-making theory, this paper demonstrates the importance of high quality decision-making skills underpinning the triage nurse’s role. Having an awareness of how judgements and decisions are made is argued as essential, in a time where traditional nurse boundaries and responsibilities are never more challenged. It is hoped that the paper not only raises this awareness in general but also, in particular, engages the triage nurse to look more critically at how they make their own decisions in their everyday practice.