Decision making of psychiatric nurses in Finland, Northern Ireland, and the United States

The purpose of this study was to describe the decision-making process of 33 9 psychiatric nurses in Finland, Northern Ireland, and the United States an d to discuss any differences observed among nurses in these countries. The instrument used in the study was a 56-item, Likert-type questionnaire teste d in several previous studies that have confirmed its validity and reliabil ity. Three different models of decision making were identified on the basis of factor analysis. Overall, it may be concluded that the decision-making process of psychiatric nurses is broadly based, but it varies between count ries. Nurses from Northern Ireland used only analytical decision-making mod els; nurses from Finland made decisions strongly favored analytical decisio n-making models but also used some intuitive models; and American nurses us ed intuitive decision-making and analytical-processing models.