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Aim. The aim of this study was to explore the thinking strategies and clinical reasoning processes registered nurses use during simulated care planning for malnutrition and pressure ulcers in nursing home care. Background. Clinical reasoning is an essential component of nursing practice. Registered nurses' thinking strategies and clinical reasoning have received limited attention in nursing science. Further research is needed to understand registered nurses' clinical reasoning, especially for prevention of malnutrition and pressure ulcers as they are important quality indicators of resident care in nursing homes. Design. A qualitative explorative design was used with a think-aloud interview technique. Methods. The transcribed verbalisations were analysed with qualitative deductive content analysis. Data were collected during six months in 2007-2008 from 30 registered nurses at nine nursing homes in Norway. Results. The registered nurses used a variety of thinking strategies, but there were differences in the frequency of use of the different strategies. The three most commonly used thinking strategies were 'making choices', 'forming relationships' and 'drawing conclusions'. None of the nurses performed a structured risk assessment of malnutrition or pressure ulcers. Registered nurses started with assessing data from the scenarios, but after a short and elementary assessment they moved directly to planning. Conclusion. Many different thinking strategies were used in registered nurses' clinical reasoning for prevention of malnutrition and pressure ulcers. The thinking strategy 'making choices' was most commonly used and registered nurses' main focus in their reasoning was on planning nursing interventions. Relevance to clinical practice. This study showed that most of the registered nurses go directly to planning when reasoning clinically about residents in nursing homes. A lack of systematic risk assessments was identified. The insight gained from this study can be used to recommend improvements in tools designed for nursing homes to support the registered nurses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Computerized decision support systems (CDSSs) have been shown to help health care professionals to avoid errors and improve clinical practice and efficiency in health care. Little is known about its influence on nursing practice and outcomes for residents in nursing homes., Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects on the risk for and prevalence of pressure ulcers (PUs) and malnutrition of implementing a CDSS to improve prevention and care of PUs and also to improve nutrition in the elderly in nursing homes., Design Setting and Participants: The study used a quasi-experimental design with two intervention groups and one control group. A convenience sample of residents from 46 units in 15 nursing homes in rural areas in Norway was included. A total of 491 residents participated at baseline in 2007 and 480 residents at follow-up in 2009., Methods: The intervention included educational sessions in prevention of PUs and malnutrition for registered nurses (RNs) and nursing aides (NAs) in the two intervention groups. In addition, one intervention group (intervention group 1) had a CDSS integrated into the electronic healthcare record (EHR) based on two research-based risk assessment instruments: the Risk Assessment Pressure Scale (RAPS) for PU risk screening and the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA(®)) scale for screening nutritional status. In each participating nursing home trained RNs and NAs examined all residents who consented to participate on the RAPS and the MNA(®) scale. This examination included a skin assessment and details about PUs were collected., Results: The proportion of malnourished residents decreased significantly in intervention group 1 between the two data collection periods (2007 and 2009). No other significant effects of the CDSS on resident outcomes based on the RAPS and MNA(®) scores were found., Conclusion: CDSSs used by RNs and NAs in nursing homes are still largely unexplored. A CDSS can be incorporated into the EHR to increase the meaningful use of these computerized systems in nursing home care. The effects of CDSS on healthcare provider workflow, clinical decision making and communication about preventive measures in nursing home practice still need further exploration. Based on results from our study, recommendations would be to increase both sample size and the number of RNs and NAs who participate in CDSS education programs., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)