Decision Making Programme
Changes in health care policy have resulted in nurses and midwives and Allied Health Professions increasingly taking responsibility for making judgements and decisions about the care that patients receive. For example, nurses run clinics in primary care, order tests in accident and emergency departments and are the first line for referral in new models of service delivery. Evidence-based health care suggests that decision making should involve an integration of research evidence, practitioner experience, resources available and patient values. The individual or ‘micro’ level decisions, where practitioners are making decisions about the treatment of individual patients, have an impact on the wider policy arena, in terms of the quality of care patients receive.
The Decision Making Programme reflects these key issues, exploring the quality of the judgements and decisions that practitioners make, the impact these decisions have on patient care, and ways in which decision making practice can be improved. Projects within the programme concentrate on areas of clinical importance, as well as methodological development and innovation. The methods used within these projects will provide a foundation for the development of future research in the area of clinical judgement and decision making.
This remit is broad, so there has necessarily been some focus on particular clinical judgements or decisions that practitioners make, current projects have focused on maternity care, mental health and pre-hospital emergency care.
Staff
| Name | Position | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. Helen Cheyne | Programme Director | h.l.cheyne@stir.ac.uk | 01786 46 6289 |
| Dr. Edward Duncan | Clinical Research Fellow | edward.duncan@stir.ac.uk | 01786 46 6286 |
| Karen Graham | Secretary | karen.graham@stir.ac.uk | 01786 46 6341 |
| Purva Abhyankar | Research Fellow | purva.abhyankar@stir.ac.uk | 01786 46 6102 |
| Keith Colver | Research Paramedic | keith.colver@stir.ac.uk | 01786 46 6119 |
| Mary Ross-Davie | PhD Student | m.c.ross-davie@stir.ac.uk | 01786 46 6102 |
| David Fitzpatrick | Research Paramedic | david.fitzpatrick@stir.ac.uk | 01786 46 6119 |
| Dr Vanora Hundley | Honorary Senior Research Fellow | vanora.hundley@stir.ac.uk | 01786 46 6341 |
| Fiona Kane | Research Fellow | f.m.a.kane@stir.ac.uk | 01786 46 6286 |
| Angela Kerrigan | PhD Student | a.m.kerrigan@stir.ac.uk | 01786 46 6102 |
| Prof. Christine McCourt | Visiting Professor | chris.mccourt@tvu.ac.uk | 01786 46 6341 |