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ABSTRACT
Successful interventions, healthcare planning, and patient-centered care require explanation, justification, and collaboration through interprofessional clinical decision-making (CDM). Understanding health practitioners’ decision-making styles and influencing factors can enhance CDM capabilities. Health professionals and students (N = 229) completed an online survey on their decision-making styles, interprofessional education, interprofessional practice, discipline education, clinical experience, processing styles, personality, interpersonal motivational factors, and age. To assess the influence of task structure, participants answered CDM questions on a high- and a low-structured case study. Age demonstrated an effect on the level of clinical experience, while clinical experience also mediated the effect of age on rational processing styles. While personality results were mixed, consistent with previous findings, conscientiousness predicted rational processing style. Effects of interpersonal motivation on personality were also mixed, insofar as results indicated an association between conscientiousness and both experiential and rational processing styles. Interpersonal motivation also predicted rational processing styles. The complexity of CDM and factors influencing healthcare practitioners’ processing and decision-making styles was highlighted. To optimize CDM processes by addressing errors and biases, CDM, and practice complexity, healthcare practitioner education should include theory-driven CDM orientation frameworks.
Disclosure Statement
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Michelle Parker-Tomlin
Michelle Parker-Tomlin trained initially as a psychologist in the UK completing both her undergraduate and postgraduate master’s degrees prior to immigrating to Australia. Michelle has been a clinical psychology PhD candidate since 2012, completing her clinical placements and gaining provisional registration status. Her research focus is in clinical decision making and interprofessional collaborative practice. Email Address [email protected]
Mark Boschen
Mark Boschen is a senior lecturer in clinical psychology at Griffith University. He specialises in the understanding and treatment of adult obsessive-compulsive and anxiety disorders, with a specific interest in severe obsessive compulsive disorder, and experimental psychopathology approaches. Email Address [email protected]
Ian Glendon
Ian Glendon is with Griffith University’s School of Applied Psychology, and is a member of Griffith University’s Work, Organization and Wellbeing Research Centre, and the Cities Research Institute. A Fellow of the International Association of Applied Psychology, he has published six books and over 100 scientific papers and book chapters. His research interests include organizational psychology, traffic and transport psychology, and risk. Email Address [email protected]
Shirley Morrissey
Shirley Morrissey is a senior academic and practising psychologist at Griffith University’s School of Applied Psychology. She is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and has published several book chapters, two books and many scientific papers. Her research interests include clinical and health psychology, ethics and interprofessional practice. Email Address [email protected]