Clinical decision making process in last year nursing students: A qualitative study

Although improving clinical decision making skills is declared as one of the main aims of nursing education, evidences show that it is not presented effectively within nursing education programmes. The present study aimed at exploring clinical decision making process among last year nursing student. Using qualitative method (Grounded theory), six focus groups and 12 sessions of participants’ observation were conducted with a purposeful sample of 32 last year nursing students. The data were analyzed through constant comparative analysis. Participants believed competent clinical instructor, applicable knowledge, clinical experience appropriate setting for clinical education and professional self confidence are the main influential factors on students’ clinical decision making. Acquiring professional self confidence is the most important factor in experiencing and learning clinical decision making. The study revealed nursing student believe that not acquiring applicable knowledge and appropriate clinical experiences have impact on low professional self confidence required for clinical decisions. Therefore they are not satisfied with their gained competencies in clinical decision making. The result of this study showed that nursing students were not satisfied with the competency in clinical decision making. They experience low professional self-confidence as a result of feeling incompetent due to lack of applicable knowledge, suitable clinical experiences and conductive clinical learning climate.