Use of Script Concordance Activity With the Think-Aloud Approach to Foster Clinical Reasoning in Nursing Students

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Nursing Education
• Clinical Reasoning

Background:

• Clinical reasoning (CR) is crucial for healthcare professionals.
• Current teaching strategies for CR are insufficient.
• Script concordance testing and think-aloud (TA) are existing methods to evaluate CR.

Purpose of the Study:

• To adapt script concordance testing and the TA approach into a novel teaching strategy.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of this new strategy in facilitating and assessing CR.
• To explore student perceptions of this teaching method.

Main Methods:

• Developed and implemented the script concordance activity with the TA approach (SCA-TA) method.
• Integrated the SCA-TA method into a nursing course curriculum.
• Collected survey data on student perceptions of the SCA-TA method.

Main Results:

• The SCA-TA method was successfully implemented as a teaching strategy.
• Student perceptions of the SCA-TA method as a teaching tool were gathered.
• The method showed potential for fostering CR.

Conclusions:

• The SCA-TA method demonstrates promise for enhancing clinical reasoning skills in nursing students.
• Further research is recommended to track the progression of CR development using this method.