Clinical Decision Making in Healthcare (Online)

This course will explore the types of clinical decisions, nurses are making in practice today. The generic principles of clinical decision making, and the processes and skills required for safe practice will be examined. The wider influences on professionals working in clinical areas will be reviewed and the impact of these factors will be discussed.

Students will consider legal, professional and ethical concerns, as well as political and economic constraints. Students will be encouraged to reflect on their assessment tools and care planning approaches with a view to improving their practice. Problem solving scenarios will be used to stimulate on-line discussion and best practice highlighted. Students will be able to critique their own situations and the tools they use and work towards improving their service provision.

Knowledge and understanding

• Assessment models and principles
• A range of assessment tools
• Theoretical approaches to diagnostic reasoning
• The principles of critical analysis and reflection, when applied to personal clinical practice

Intellectual skills 

• Analyse and integrate work-based information with evidence from the literature in relation to assessment tools and decision-making frameworks
• Synthesise experiential and propositional knowledge and relate this to their own practice and devising and completing a personal learning plan for their own professional development

Professional / practical skills

• Use a critical and reflective approach to adopting tools for assessment and in considering their clinical decisions

Transferable skills

• Adopt a critical approach to care planning and giving processes
• Regularly review their own personal/professional development
  

Distance learning. Guided online study, online tutorials, independent learning.

Total student activity: 200 hours