Abstract: Explores the nursing literature for the tacit knowledge of the discipline about nursing prioritisation and proposes a 'fit' for nursing prioritisation of the patient need for care within the bigger picture of nurse clinical decision-making. Indicates that nurses use discretionary judgment and ongoing assessment to determine the relative importance of the many aspects of individual patient situations as they unfold. Examines the body of knowledge pertaining to clinical decision-making in nursing, suggesting that nursing prioritisation of the patient need for care is most readily discerned in the interpretive perspective and in the plain-language descriptions of nurse decision-making.
