Clinical decision-making described by Swedish XXXX care nurse students - An exploratory study.

@entity1 @entity341
AIM: The purpose of this study was to explore the PECN students' clinical decision-making during a seven-week clinical rotation in the ambulance services. INTRODUCTION: Developing expertise in @entity341 care practices requires both theoretical and empirical learning. A @entity341 care nurse (PECN) is a Registered Nurse (RN) with one year of additional training in emergency care. There has been little investigation of how PECN students describe their decision-making during a clinical rotation. METHODS: A qualitative study design was used, and 12 logbooks written by the Swedish PECN students were analysed using content analysis. FINDINGS: The students wrote about 997 @entity1 encounters - ambulance assignments during their clinical rotation. Four themes emerged as crucial for the students' decision-making: knowing the @entity1 , the context-situation awareness in the ambulance service, collaboration, and evaluation. Based on the themes, students made decisions on how to respond to @entity1 ' illnesses. CONCLUSION: The PECN students used several variables in their decision-making. The decision- making was an on-going process during the whole ambulance assignment. The university has the responsibility to guide the students during their transition from an RN to a PECN. The findings of the study can support the educators and clinical supervisors in developing the programme of study for becoming a PECN.
