Nursing Intuition: Finding Your Inner Spidy-sense

Abstract

Nursing intuition is rapidly growing as an acceptable form of clinical nursing knowledge. This manuscript follows the journey of a nurse’s intuition in caring for a neonate in the Emergency Department after a brief, resolved, unexplained, event. The nurse’s intuition and persistence helped advocate for the patient and the appropriate definitive care. Ultimately the nurse’s intuition was correct, thus validating the important role intuition plays in clinical knowledge. Have you ever had a nurse tell you they don’t know what is wrong, but they just have this feeling that something bad is about to happen? Or better yet, call the doctor because something just isn’t right, but has no findings or data to back it up? Nursing intuition over the past decade has gained increasing acceptance and has become a legitimate form of clinical nursing knowledge [1]. But what is nursing intuition? Many people have heard the phrase used across the field of nursing, but unless you have experienced it, it can be hard to define or understand. A systematic review of eight quantitative studies and over 300 abstracts offered these common themes, “Sensing an unconscious and conscious thought process” and “A sudden emotional awareness and reflection, and arousal of conscious thought process.” Additionally, they identified a sub theme of the willingness to act, based on one’s personal, social and clinical experiences [1].