A study of decision making among US psychiatric nurses

The purpose of this study was to describe psychiatric nurses' decision maki ng and to test a Finnish instrument. A 56-item survey was mailed to 351 psy chiatric nurses with a return rate of 48%, A varimax factor analysis showed 5 factors (intuitive, self-confidence, interpretive, collected information , and analytic processing) with alphas ranging from .71 to .85. Results ind icate U.S. psychiatric nurses extensively use intuitive interpretive decisi on making and cultural bias needs to be considered when using a foreign ins trument. Further research is needed to refine this instrument and describe psychiatric nurses' decision making. Copyright (C) 2000 by W.B. Saunders Co mpany.