[Decision making in prehospital emergency nurses: a qualitative research]

ABSTRACT

The patients' first encounter is usually with the prehospital emergency. In order to meet the clients and beneficiaries' needs, it is necessary the prehospital emergency nurses be a competent decision maker based on the patients' unstable conditions. This study aims to examine the factors influencing on the manner of prehospital emergency nurses' decision making in emergencies and during the mission. In this qualitative study, 18 nurses of prehospital emergency bases of Shahrekord University of medical sciences were studied. Data was collected by using semi-structured and in-depth interviews, and also it was used content analysis to analyze the qualitative data. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed concurrently with the data collection. By analyzing the data, five main themes were known as the influencing factors in prehospital emergency nurses' decision making which are as follows 1] patient-related factors; 2] nurse-related factors; 3] environmental factors; 4] colleagues related factors; 5] the factors related with the type of event and mission. The findings provide a deep understanding of the effective factors in prehospital emergency nurses' decision making. Deep understanding of the manner of prehospital emergency nurses' decision making can facilitate more effective decisions in emergencies, during the mission as well as its related factors and also influence on the output of nursing and medical cares