Objective To systematically synthesize evidence from qualitative studies on nurses′ intuition in clinical practice, and to provide references for nursing decision-making, education, and management.
Methods Following the Reporting Standards for Systematic Reviews of Qualitative Research, search strategies were formulated based on the SPIDER framework, then qualitative studies on nurses′ clinical intuition were systematically searched in domestic and international databases.The methodological quality of the literature was evaluated, and meta-synthesis was performed to integrate and summarize the results.
Results After a quality assessment, 19 studies were included.The analysis and synthesis resulted in eight categories and further summarized into three integrated themes:the intuitive mechanism and role of experience in nursing decision-making, the practice of nurses′ clinical intuition in individual and organizational collaboration, and the education and ethics related to nurses′ clinical intuition.
Conclusion Nurses′ clinical intuition is an experience-driven contextual cognitive mechanism that forms an internalized schema through the integration of knowledge and experience, and processes unstructured information via the threshold effect.Its formation relies on long-term accumulation and subconscious processing, and is influenced by institutional, cultural and team factors.It acts as a "tinkerer" in complex situations to address the limitations of guidelines.Its legitimacy and resilience should be enhanced through contextual training and technological empowerment.
