PROBLEM-SOLVING ABILITY OF BACCALAUREATE NURSING STUDENTS: DATA COLLECTION AND GENERATION OF NURSING DIAGNOSES.
Contributors: Columbia University. Teachers College.
Published: 1986
Number of pages: 201
Subjects: Education, Curriculum and Instruction.
Description: This study was conducted to determine if baccalaureate nursing students who have learned the nursing process for problem-solving in classroom situations can demonstrate understanding of the assessment phase of this concept by identifying and using relevant cues to generate nursing diagnoses in a simulated client care situation.

Two hypotheses were tested: first, that students who use a structured assessment guide will identify more relevant cues than students who have not used this guide, in a simulated client care situation; and second, that students who use a structured assessment guide will generate more accurate nursing diagnoses than students who have not used this guide, in a simulated client care situation.

The sample consisted of sixty-seven volunteer nursing students in their last semester of their senior year. All were enrolled in five National League for Nursing accredited baccalaureate schools of nursing in the greater New York metropolitan area.

Participants were randomly assigned to two groups: experimental and control. Both groups were presented with a simulated client care situation and were directed to identify relevant cues and to generate nursing diagnoses. The experimental group was exposed to the independent variable--a Data Assessment Guide.

Results revealed that, as hypothesized, the students provided with the structured assessment guide identified a greater percentage of relevant cues and generated a greater percentage of accurate nursing diagnoses from the simulated client care situation than students who were not provided with this guide.

Conclusions included: (1) senior students in baccalaureate nursing programs did not demonstrate a clear understanding of the assessment phase of the nursing process despite considerable exposure to this concept in classroom situations; (2) use of the Data Assessment Guide seemed to improve nursing students' performance in data collection and generation of nursing diagnoses; (3) while the Data Assessment Guide can upgrade performance, improvement in assessment skills must come through more effective teaching of the nursing process as a problem-solving process, integrated into the curriculum, rather than mere content.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-11, Section: A, page: 3968.

Thesis (ED.D.)--COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TEACHERS COLLEGE, 1986.

School code: 0055.