Diagnostic reasoning among second-year nursing students

This paper reports on a study investigating the relationship of nursing students' approaches to learning and processing of information, science content knowledge, ability in interpreting and organizing clinical data (nursing assessment), and logical reasoning ability with the accuracy and quality of the nursing diagnosis made in a simulated diagnostic reasoning task. One hundred and sixty-nine second-year pre-service nursing students participated in the study. Results of path analyses indicated a set of pathways from surface approach to low-quality nursing diagnosis that reflected less competent diagnostic reasoning; and a second set from deep/achieving approach through content knowledge and logical reasoning to higher-quality nursing diagnosis that reflected more competent diagnostic reasoning. The implications of these findings for nurse education are discussed.