An Investigation of Intuition, Years of Worked Nursing Experience, and Emergency Nurses' Perceived Ethical Decision Makin

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between nurses' use of intuition, years of worked nursing experience, and nurses' perceived ethical decision making ability. Additionally, recognizing the relationship between the intuitive/experiential and the analytic/rational systems, this research extended beyond the intuitive/experiential system capturing analytic/rational thought. A sample of 182 nurses from the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) was recruited for this investigation. A nonexperimental, correlational research design was used to examine the relationship between the variables. Intuition was measured using the Experiential scale of the Rational-Experiential Inventory (REI) and analytic/rational was measured using Rationality scale of the REI. Perceived ethical decision making ability was measured with the Clinical Decision Making in Nursing Scale (CDMNS) applied to an ethical dilemma within the participants own practice. Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory (CEST) provided the theoretical framework for this study. According to CEST, information is processed by two independent, interactive conceptual systems; a preconscious intuitive/experiential system and a conscious analytic/rational system. These are thought to function parallel from yet interactively with each other. One-way ANOVAs, independent sample t-tests, Pearson's r correlation, and multiple regressions analysis provided the statistical methods used to answer nine research questions. A significant relationship was found between intuition and perceived ethical decision making (r = .252, p = .001). This contributes to a broader understanding of the different thought processes used by emergency nurses to make ethical decisions.