This is a qualitative study in a descriptive exploratory approach with the purpose to characterize the intuitive knowledge in nursing care. The qualitative data were generated through semi-structured interviews with 87 nursing professionals. The analysis of the data was done using QSR Vivo and interpreted through a framework based on studies of the North-American nursing literature. Intuition emerged as a feeling, as a type of knowledge, and as both. Further analysis showed three defining attributes: 1) knowledge of a fact or the truth, as a whole; 2) immediate possession of knowledge; 3) knowledge independent from linear reasoning process, as well as three types of intuition: cognitive inference, gestalt intuition, and precognitive function. The result of this study shows a parallel with the others found in North-American nursing literature.
knowledge; intuition; nursing care
