A framework for understanding clinical reasoning in community nursing

Background: Clinical reasoning is employed to develop solutions to health needs. The impact of the clinical environment on the organization of knowledge-guiding practice has received limited attention. This gap in the clinical landscape restricts the sharing of decision-making processes.

Aims: Focusing on the community, and specifically the patient's home as a context for nursing, this paper describes the creation of a collective conceptual map for a group of community nurses. There is a twofold aim of exploring the process of exposing and articulating the clinical framework and enhancing and sharing understanding of the clinical paradigm in this context.

Design: An interpretive research approach was utilized. Hermeneutic phenomenology guided the level of meaning accessed and constructivism was used to build an educational picture.

Methods: Multiple methods including focus groups, observation and narrative recordings were utilized to collect and analyse research data.

Results: All nurses may engage with the same concepts--health, need, care and partnerships--but organized into particular frames by the guiding practice philosophy and service organization. A four-stage framework for understanding clinical reasoning in the community setting is presented. This acknowledges the multi-faceted nature of health, the lived experience of health deficits, and is located in a participation and negotiated model of care. Practice examples are presented to expose the construction of need and response which often occurs in a triadic decision-making process.

Conclusions: Environment of care has significant implications on need identification and response.

Relevance to clinical practice: Mechanisms to enhance the sharing of clinical reasoning and decision-making transparency are essential to aid inter- and intra-professional communication. Presentation of a clinical reasoning framework exposes the breath of 'signals' encountered in practice and the range of knowledge employed in understanding and responding to patient need.