JNUR_V1_N3_Rev1 Jamela M. Martin Journal on Nursing 2231 – 4504 1 3 43 50 Intuition in Nursing, Empiricism, Antecedents and Consequences Intuition has been defined by a variety of sources and used in many ways since the early days of philosopher Kant and mathematician Einstein. However the term 'intuition' remains quite vague in description, as varying disciplines have interpreted the meaning, use, and significance differently. Nurses use intuition frequently when caring for patients, both sick and well. Intuition often guides decision-making and can influence all phases of the nursing process. A further understanding of this concept may help define what intuition in nursing means and can enhance our ability to recognize its use in care settings. The purposes of this concept analysis are to further understand of the concept of intuition and to increase the general awareness of its use in nursing, to help care providers and educators recognize intuition as an important form of nursing knowledge, and to discern whether the use of intuition should be encouraged in nursing practice. Methods for analysis included comprehensive searches of medical literature databases and other library databases for sources outside of nursing or medical literature, and hand searches of reference lists. Using a constructivist view, with theory development as the major goal, the use of constructed borderline, related, contrary, invented, and illegitimate cases of intuition are analyzed. August - October 2011 Copyright © 2011 i-manager publications. All rights reserved. i-manager Publications http://www.imanagerpublications.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=2812