Evaluation of Clinical Practice Settings for Baccalaureate Nursing Students’ Development of Clinical Judgment

Abstract

Background: Recipients of health care in the 21st century demand excellent patient-centered care and outcomes. Leaders of health care organizations, as well as political and national organizations, have focused their attention to the readiness of newly graduated baccalaureate of science in nursing prepared nurses to care for patients. Bridging the gap from nursing science theory to professional practice remains a challenge for nursing programs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of the clinical learning practice settings on the individual student’s development of clinical judgment skills. Methods: This quantitative comparative pilot study evaluated the unlicensed BSN student’s ability to demonstrate safe and effective patient care before and after exposure to a clinical learning setting. This project involved applying a progressive simulation experience with a quantitative pretest (prior to clinical exposure) and posttest (after clinical exposure) to determine the impact of two nursing clinical learning models, a traditional clinical model and a dedicated education model, on individual students’ development of clinical judgment. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 24. Results: Students in the dedicated education clinical learning model demonstrated statistically significant change in the pre- and post-test scores improvement in their clinical judgment competency. Conclusions: Although both clinical models provided evidence in support of student development of the professional competency of clinical judgment, there is a need to continue to evaluate the long-term impact of this model on student learning outcomes.