An Exploration of Nursing Students' Clinical Decision-Making Process

Area of Science:

• Nursing Practice
• Clinical Education

Background:

• Nursing diagnoses are crucial for effective patient care planning.
• Understanding the application of nursing diagnoses by students provides insights into clinical education effectiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and analyze the nursing diagnoses employed by intern nursing students during their clinical practice.
• To evaluate the scope and distribution of nursing diagnoses within the NANDA-I taxonomy used by students.

Main Methods:

• A descriptive, retrospective study design was employed.
• Data were collected by reviewing care plans from the internship files of 248 nursing students.
• Analysis focused on the types and frequency of nursing diagnoses documented.

Main Results:

• A total of 77 unique nursing diagnoses were identified across 13 NANDA-I taxonomy II domains.
• The students documented 1,469 nursing diagnoses in their care plans.
• The most frequently used domain was "safety/protection."

Conclusions:

• Nursing students frequently utilize diagnoses within the "safety/protection" domain.
• There was a notable absence of diagnoses within the "life principles" domain among the student-generated care plans.
• Findings suggest a need to enhance student education on the full spectrum of NANDA-I diagnoses, particularly those related to life principles.