Clinical Judgment in Practice Matters:

Understanding how practitioners make clinical judgments in community care contexts where patients can actively participate in their own care is important given the international trends and developments in community-based healthcare. Traditional explanations of clinical judgment tend to be based on cognitive psychology theories and do not account for psychosocial issues which arise during patient-practitioner interactions. This book, therfore, maps out key strategies that advanced practitioners in nursing use when making clinical judgments in community care contexts. Using grounded theory methodology, the analysis explores how practitioners engage patients in a way that facilitates an effective co- construction of health problems, develop a patient- practitioner relationship which helps in the process of negotiating treatments, and enables them reach treatment decisions that are acceptable to patients. It highlights clinical judgment as a social interaction and identifies practical strategies that may help practitioners further develop their clinical judgment practice to include the development of an effective relationship with patients.