Nursing Expertise Self-Report Scale
1. I am an: RN

2. My job is: Staff Nurse

3. Length of time since graduating as an RN: More than 3 years

4. Length of time working on your unit: More than 3 years

5. Previous experience in nursing prior to graduating as an RN: Under 6 months

(1=Strongly Agree, 2=Agree, 3=Unsure, 4=Disagree, 5=Strongly Disagree)

1. I often know ahead of time that my patient will take a turn for the worse. 1 2 3 4 5

2. I frequently draw on past experiences when making patient care decisions. 1 2 3 4 5

3. Quality nursing care results from strictly adhering to policy and procedure. 1 2 3 4 5

4. When I do patient care, only a few pieces of information stand out as critically important. 1 2 3 4 5

5. I am consciously aware of the process of decision making in patient care. 1 2 3 4 5

6. Emotional attachments get in the way of good nursing care. 1 2 3 4 5

7. When something goes wrong with my patient, I seem to know automatically what to do. 1 2 3 4 5

8. Sometimes I find it difficult to identify objective reasons for certain patient care decisions. 1 2 3 4 5

9. The best way to give good nursing care is to get close to the patient. 1 2 3 4 5

10. I find it time consuming to set priorities in patient care. 1 2 3 4 5

11. I make my best decisions about patient care when I remain objective. 1 2 3 4 5

12. In an emergency, things happen so quickly that I don’t know what to do. 1 2 3 4 5

13. I base my patient care decisions more often on the rules that I learned in nursing school than on my experience in patient care. 1 2 3 4 5

14. It seems obvious to me what things need to be done first for my patients. 1 2 3 4 5

15. I use facts such as lab values and vital signs as my main source of information for making patient care decisions. 1 2 3 4 5

16. I usually require a lot of information about a patient