The intuitive nurse in critical care practice: a phenomenological study

Intuition in clinical practice is the ability to experience the elements of a clinical situation as a whole, and to solve a problem or reach a decision with limited concrete information. Benner theorized that the expert nurse acts on intuition, but that he/she also deals with some ambiguities. However, there is a lack of studies about intuitive nursing in the critical care arena, where more critically ill patients are admitted. So, this study was conducted to explore the features of the intuitive nurse in critical care practice. In a descriptive-phenomenological study, twelve nurses employed in critical care units of the hospitals affiliated to Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences were recruited to the study, as purposive, a semi-structured interview was administered to them, then written down verbatim. The data was managed by MAXQDA 10 software (VERBI GmbH, Berlin, Germany) and analyzed as qualitative through the seven-stage approach of Colaizzi. Of the 12 nurses who participated in the study, seven (58.3%) were female and married, 88.3% (10 people) had a Bachelor of Nursing and the mean and standard deviations of the participants’ age, job experience and critical care experience were 36.66±7.01, 13.75±6.82 and 7.66±3.36 years, respectively. From the qualitative analysis of the data, we extracted three main themes, including proficiency, connection and benevolence, and ten sub-themes. The intuitive nurses were substantially proficient in terms of knowledge, skill and experience, and relationships to patients. They desired to help the patients based on their consciences.