A descriptive analysis of experienced nurses' clinical reasoning during a planning task.

A Think Aloud (TA) method was employed to collect verbal data from seven clinical nurses as they reviewed a written case study and formulated a plan of care. Protocol Analysis (PA) of the verbal data resulted in a visual representation of each subject's plan of care and provided information regarding the clinical data that subjects used to plan care. The results demonstrated that frequently problems and interventions were inextricably linked and considered in unison rather than during separate steps of a planning process. This finding has implications relative to the current practice within both nursing education and nursing service of focusing on problems and interventions separately when planning care.