General decision-making style and clinical competence of nurses working in the educational hospitals affiliated to Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences in 2014

Decision-making is the main concept in nursing, having a direct effect on nursing care. Awareness of the relationship between decision-making style and nursing clinical competence is a prerequisite for establishing proper educative programs over developing the nurses’ expertise. The current study was conducted to determine the correlation between general decision-making style and clinical competence of nurses. In this correctional research, 204 nurses working in the educational hospitals in Kermanshah enrolled in the study using a stratified random method in 2014. The tools included clinical competence of Benner and Scott and Bruce decision-making styles questioners. Data were collected from work location of the participants and completing the questioners. Then they were analyzed using SPSS version 16 and descriptive and inferential statistics. Mean and standard deviation of total clinical competence was 69.56± 10.74. The mean number of rational decision- making (17.97± 3.07) and intuitive decision-making (17.95± 3.43) styles was higher than other styles. There was a significant positive correlation between rational (r=0.209 P=0.003) and intuitive (r=0.193 P=0.006) decision- making styles with clinical competence. There was a positive relationship between rational and intuitive decision- making styles with clinical competence. Consequently, an appropriate educational program should be designed to strengthen the clinical competency of nurses and nursing students.