Intuition in healthcare communication practices: Initial findings from a qualitative inquiry

This brief paper reports on how healthcare providers negotiate stages of care and communication by using intuition. This focus shifts attention away from the product-patient records-and towards the process of medical communication. To support this claim, the paper presents preliminary findings from qualitative analysis of two individual ethnographic research projects with live-action clinical nursing simulations and emergency medical services. Using a grounded theory analysis that identified intuitive moments in the writing practices of healthcare providers, this brief paper demonstrates how intuition manifests in all five stages of care-anticipate, assess, plan, act and reassess, and document-and grounds medical assessment and decision making. Analysis suggests three takeaways for healthcare communicators and educators: 1. intuitive work supports patient specific and responsive care; 2. coding and highlighting mediate patient sense; and 3. recognizing and valuing patient sense is a learned skill. The paper concludes with suggestions for reflective activities that could support incorporating intuition into healthcare communication pedagogy.