Effect of educational intervention on clinical reasoning skills in nursing: A quasi-experimental study

This study evaluated the effect of an educational intervention based on virtual clinical simulation and problem-based learning using a mobile application in a clinical nursing education context as a tool to improve clinical reasoning skills of students on the second year of nursing graduation. A prospective quasi-experimental study was conducted in the year 2018, and assessments were performed before and after the educational intervention. A random convenience sample (n = 32) of nursing students in the second year of a public university in Brazil was divided equally into experimental and control groups. The experimental group underwent educational intervention about clinical reasoning skills and measured the quality of the Diagnostician Nurse software by LORI 2.0 instrument. The control group experienced the conventional class on clinical reasoning skills. Four clinical cases were used to assess reasoning skills before and after the educational intervention. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The experimental group showed a statistically significant difference regarding the prioritization of nursing diagnoses (p = 0.014) and a higher final score. There was a statistically significant difference in performance between the pre- and post-test in the grades of the students who participated in the intervention (p = 0.003). The control group also showed statistical significance in the score attributed to the clinical reasoning process (p = 0.015). In addition, the Diagnostician Nurse software had excellent usability and quality evaluations (SUS 87.81 and LORI 4.66, respectively). It is concluded that educational intervention based on virtual clinical simulation and learning problems using the Diagnostician Nurse software is effective as a tool to improve clinical reasoning skills and can support early detection of patients. The educational intervention developed was of high quality and attractive and improved students' motivation for the teaching-learning process.