Applying Scientific Models to Decision

Many of you are a registered nurse. Since your graduation 3 years ago, you have worked as a full-time industrial health nurse for a large manufacturing plant. Although you love your family (spouse and one preschool-aged child), you love your job as well because a career is very important to you. Recently, you and your spouse decided to have another baby. At that time, you and your spouse reached a joint decision that if you had another baby, you would reduce your work time and spend more time at home with the children. Last week, however, the director of human resources told you that the full-time director of health-care services for the plant is leaving and that the organization wants to appoint you to the position. You were initially thrilled and excited; however, you found out several days later that you and your spouse are expecting a baby. Last night, you spoke with your spouse about your career future. Your spouse is an attorney whose practice has suddenly gained momentum. Although the two of you have shared child-rearing equally until this point, your spouse is not sure how much longer this can be done if the law practice continues to expand. If you take the position, which you would like to do, it would mean full-time work and more management responsibilities. You want the decision you and your spouse reach to be well-thought-out, as it has far-reaching consequences and concerns many people.

Writing Pompts

Determine what you should do.
Examine both the individual aspects of decision making and the critical elements in making decisions.
Make a plan including a goal, a list of information, and data that you need to gather and areas where you may be vulnerable to poor decision making.
Examine the consequences of each alternative available to you.
After you have made your decision, get together in a group (four to six people) and share your decisions.
Were they the same?
How did you approach the problem solving differently from others in your group?
Was a rational systematic problem-solving process used, or was the chosen solution based more on intuition?
How many alternatives were generated?
Did some of the group members identify alternatives that you had not considered?
Was a goal or objective identified?
How did your personal values influence your decision?