Abstract

Critical thinking and clinical judgment are essential competencies for professional nursing practice. These abilities are used continually, enabling nurses to provide safe nursing care to increasingly complex patients in a variety of healthcare settings. The challenge that faces baccalaureate nursing programs as they prepare nursing students to function competently upon graduation, is how best to facilitate the development of these skills in our students. The purpose of this capstone project was to test the effect of the middle range theory of the Developing Nurses' Thinking (DNT) Model on clinical judgment in nursing students. Tanner's Clinical Judgment Model formed the conceptual framework for this project. An experimental, pretest/posttest study was conducted using a convenience sample of 44 senior students at one southeastern baccalaureate nursing program. Two clinical groups received the intervention in post conferences, while three groups served as the control group. Student clinical judgment was measured in high fidelity patient simulation, using the Lasater Clinical Judgment Rubric. Paired t-tests evaluated the differences between clinical judgment scores and an independent t-test was utilized to evaluate the difference between groups. Both groups showed statistically significant improvements on the posttest, but there was no statistically significant difference between groups. Therefore, the findings of this study did not support the use of the DNT Model to facilitate the development of clinical judgment in nursing students. However, small sample size and inadequate exposure to the intervention were likely contributors to these outcomes.

Description

This capstone paper has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 3642205; ProQuest document ID: 1629825816. The author still retains copyright.

Author Details

Kristie Douglass, DNP

Sigma Membership

Unknown

Type

DNP Capstone Project

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Quasi-Experimental Study, Other

Research Approach

Pilot/Exploratory Study

Keywords:

Clinical Judgement, Developing Nurses' Thinking Model, Nursing Student Education, Simulation

Advisor

Cindy Miller

Second Advisor

Angela Haynes

Third Advisor

Roxanne Haynes

Fourth Advisor

Roxanne Johnston

Degree

DNP

Degree Grantor

Gardner-Webb University

Degree Year

2014

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

Date of Issue

2017-02-14

Full Text of Presentation

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