BACKGROUND: Because nurses need to handle a broad range of issues related to patients' health status, it is necessary to make reliable and sound clinical judgments for professional accountability and the patients' safety.
METHOD: A quasi-experimental pre- and posttest design with a control group was used to study the effectiveness of an educational intervention on the clinical judgment skills of 80 RNs from two district hospitals. The change in clinical judgment skills during a 6-week period was evaluated using a complex case-based scenario after the completion of the educational intervention.
RESULTS: The mean scores of clinical judgment skills of the experimental group had significantly improved from 24.15 ± 6.92 to 47.38 ± 7.20. (p < .001). However, only a slight change was seen in mean scores for the control group (23.80 ± 5.77 to 26.50 ± 6.53).
CONCLUSION: The educational intervention was effective postintervention. Continuing nursing education using a traditional and case-based method is recommended to improve clinical judgment skills in clinical settings. J Contin Educ Nurs. 2017;48(8):347-352.
* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.