Problem-solving skills of University nursing students and factors affecting them: A Cross-sectional study

The aim of this study was to determine problem-solving skills of nursing students and the factors affecting them. This cross-sectional study comprised 233 senior students studying professional nursing at the university level in Turkey in 2018. The research sample comprised 176 students who participated voluntarily and the data was collected from them by using a "Personal Information Form" and "Problem-Solving Inventory." Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were utilised for data assessment. The mean scores of students from the "Problem-Solving Inventory" were 84.47±21.21. The mean scores of the subscales were as follows: 24.03±8.77 for the "Problem-Solving Reliability"; 45.54±13.88 for "way of approaching-avoiding" and 17.07±4.04 for "personal control." The factors found to be affecting the participants in the study were mainly students' gender, income levels and self-evaluation of their own problem-solving skills. These factors linearly increased their total scores and subscale scores. When the relationship of linearity was evaluated, it was highly significant statistically (p<0.001). In conclusion, the problem-solving skills of senior-year students were at a medium-level.