COMPARISON OF CLINICAL DECISION-MAKING SKILLS OF ASSOCIATE DEGREE AND BACCALAUREATE DEGREE NURSING STUDENTS.
Contributors: Peabody College For Teachers Of Vanderbilt University.
Published: 1990
Number of pages: 97
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Education, Higher.
Description: This study examines the clinical decision-making skills of associate degree nursing students and baccalaureate degree nursing students. One hundred students in Tennessee Board of Nursing approved schools of nursing participate in the survey. The sample consists of 25 students in each of four subgroups: associate degree, first clinical nursing course; associate degree, last clinical nursing course; baccalaureate degree, first clinical nursing course; and baccalaureate degree, last clinical nursing course.

I use Jenkins's (1983) instrument, the Clinical Decision Making in Nursing Scale (CDMNS), and the ANOVA statistical instrument. No significant differences surface between associate degree and baccalaureate degree students (F =.788; df = 1; p = 380); however, a significant difference exists between students in their first clinical nursing course and students in their last clinical nursing course F =.646; df = 1; p =.001; MS for first clinical nursing course = 142.13; MS for last clinical nursing course = 145.81).

The CDMNS contains four subscales: (a) evaluation and reevaluation of consequences, (b) canvassing of objectives and values, (c) search for alternatives, and (d) search for information and unbiased assimilation of new information. The first subscale reveals that students in their first clinical nursing course could better evaluate consequences. Students in their first clinical nursing course also scores higher on the second subscale.

Baccalaureate degree students score higher on the third subscale. No significant difference exists on the fourth subscale between either baccalaureate degree and associate degree students or between first and last clinical nursing course. Implications with regard to clinical decision-making skills for both nursing education and nursing administration may be drawn from this study. Nursing educators need to include more theoretical concepts and/or more application opportunities for students to develop and refine their clinical decision-making skills. Nursing administrators need to include additional orientation for the new graduate to further refine this clinical competency.

One recommendation for additional study deals with the expansion of the sample to a regional level. A second recommendation deals with surveying graduates after a period of actual clinical practice and in settings other than an acute-care hospital. Replication of the study using a longitudinal approach following the same students throughout their educational careers would be appropriate.

Reference. Jenkins, H. (1983). Perceptions of decision-making among baccalaureate nursing students as measured by the clinical decision-making in nursing scale (Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland). Dissertation Abstracts International, 44, 2969.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-01, Section: B, page: 0165.

Thesis (ED.D.)--PEABODY COLLEGE FOR TEACHERS OF VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY, 1990.

School code: 0074.