ABSTRACT
This chapter explains a definition of decision making and nurses’ accountability. Nurses’ decision making involves participants, a process, an outcome and a particular setting, namely the clinical landscape of the ward. The nurse uses a narrative-based process to generate decision options and select an intervention, leading to an outcome. The professional regulator is concerned with monitoring whether standards of practice are upheld so that nurses satisfy their legally based duty of care. Traditionally the development of decision-making skill has been learned ‘on the job’ through clinical experience. It is possible to use the narrative model to identify key steps in decision making and to find ways of developing related learning in classroom rather than clinical settings. Modern health services are target driven and have to be accountable to patients. The quality of decision outcomes is a relevant measure that forms a useful starting point for examining the process used.
