Which type of knowing may be used when facilitating client's expression of needs?

• A. Intuition
• B. Purely empirical data
• C. Policy manuals
• D. External evaluation

Answer: (A)

Intuition is the kind of knowing that comes from clinical experience and the therapeutic relationship, allowing a nurse coach to sense when something more is needed and to pick up subtle cues that a client may not yet verbalize. This relational, tacit understanding helps guide questions and conversations so the client can express their needs more fully, even if they aren’t stated outright. Empirical data provide objective facts, policy manuals give guidelines, and external evaluation offers outside judgments; none of these directly capture the nuanced understanding that supports eliciting a client's unspoken or emerging needs. Intuition, rooted in the nurse–client connection and pattern recognition from past practice, best facilitates the expression of needs.