Clinical Judgment and Informatics: Encoding Simulations Using the Omaha System.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Clinical Judgment Development
• Health Informatics

Background:

• Clinical judgment is a vital nursing skill.
• Unfolding case studies are a key pedagogical tool for developing clinical judgment.
• The Omaha System provides a standardized taxonomy for nursing documentation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate nursing students' ability to identify essential nursing interventions using the Omaha System within an unfolding case study.
• To assess the effectiveness of an unfolding case study combined with the Omaha System for clinical judgment development.

Main Methods:

• An unfolding case study was created from a simulation scenario.
• 33 nursing interventions were encoded using the Omaha System.
• Multiple true-false response items were administered electronically to 101 prelicensure baccalaureate nursing students.

Main Results:

• Participants correctly identified interventions with an average of 74.6% accuracy (SD = 12%).
• Essential interventions were identified significantly more accurately (78%, SD = 18.7%) than distractor interventions (67%, SD = 18%).

Conclusions:

• Nursing students can successfully identify appropriate interventions when utilizing the Omaha System.
• Unfolding case studies and multiple true-false items offer a potentially effective and cost-efficient method for enhancing nursing education.
• This approach supports the development of clinical judgment in nursing students.