The Factors Influencing Nursing Professionals' Clinical Reasoning Competencies

Abstract

Background: Clinical reasoning (CR) is a vital competence for nursing, as it is required for solving problems arising in complex clinical situations. Identifying the factors that influence nurses’ clinical reasoning competence in the social context can help their implicit educational needs. Moreover, CR is dynamic for clinical practice and patient safety and can be very important in the health professions. Health profession educators generally believe that CR has to be taught clearly and longitudinally in health profession education. The study aims: To determine the factors influencing nursing professionals' clinical reasoning competencies. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted from January to April 2022 in Makkah, KSA. Data was collected from 323 participants using a convenient sampling technique. The study instrument was a validated and reliable questionnaire of the Clinical Reasoning Competency Scale with a Cronbach alpha of 0.90. Independent sample t-tests, ANNOVA and multiple linear regressions were used for data analysis through SPSS 28. The study was approved by the University review committee, and informed consent was obtained from each participant. Results: In this study, the maximum number of nurses were male (221; 85%), and the majo[1]rity of the nurses' academic performance was average 156 (60%). The overall mean score of clinical reasoning competencies was 60.0 ± 8.9, while there were significant differences within the groups of gender (0.021), age (0.000), clinical experience (0.000) and academic performance (0.007), while there were no significant differences within the groups of semester (0.140), living area (0.925), or college status (0.277) in clinical reasoning competencies. Conclusion: The study concluded that nurses, especially the final-year BSN, had high clinical reasoning competencies due to their exposure to clinical practice were high. The academic performance of the nurses affects their clinical reasoning competencies, so to achieve more confidence in clinical reasoning, nurses require excellent academic performance.