Date of Graduation

1989

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of a method to modify the inquiry pattern behaviors of registered professional nurses in data gathering for clinical judgments. Forty registered professional nurses who were either students currently enrolled in an upper-division baccalaureate RN completion program or graduates of the program participated in the study. Twenty subjects were randomly assigned to Group I and received the experimental treatment, intensive instruction in cue attendance, information search, and hypothesis generation. Twenty additional subjects were assigned to Group II and received instruction in the principles of diagnostic reasoning. Measures of demographic data, level of cognitive functioning, and pre-instruction inquiry pattern behaviors were obtained prior to instruction. Analysis of variance were used to determine the effectiveness of intensive instruction. Significant near and far-transfer effects for cue attendance and information search behaviors were demonstrated. Significant effects for hypothesis generation behaviors were not demonstrated. There was insufficient evidence to support any effect of the level of cognitive functioning and accomplishments of the subjects as the result of intensive instruction. It was concluded that intensive instruction was effective for cue attendance and information search behaviors but not for hypothesis generation behaviors. Further research in the use of intensive instruction was recommended.

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