Development of clinical decision-making among undergraduate nursing students: the effect of unfolding case-based learning

Wei Liu

doi:10.1515/ijnes-2023-0115

Article

Development of clinical decision-making among undergraduate nursing students: the effect of unfolding case-based learning

Wei Liu

Published/Copyright: June 13, 2024

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From the journal International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship Volume 21 Issue 1

Abstract

Objectives

This prospective cohort study evaluated the effect of unfolding case-based learning on undergraduate nursing students’ self-perceived clinical decision-making ability.

Methods

Students’ self-reported responses to Jenkins’s Clinical Decision Making in Nursing Scale were compared between the unfolding case-based learning cohort (n=140) and the comparison cohort (n=126) at a school of nursing in the United States.

Results

The results revealed similar students’ responses between the two study cohorts. However, unfolding case-based learning significantly increased students’ perceived proficiency in “search for information and unbiased assimilation of new information”.

Conclusions

Findings from the present study highlight possibilities presented by unfolding case-based learning in undergraduate nursing education. The study supports that unfolding case studies can be introduced early on, and then nurtured throughout the undergraduate program to influence the development of nursing students’ clinical decision-making skills.

Keywords: cased-based learning; clinical decision-making; students; undergraduate nursing education; unfolding cases

Corresponding author: Wei Liu, College of Nursing and Public Health, 3479 Adelphi University , Garden City 11530-0701, USA, E-mail: wliu@adelphi.edu

Funding source: Adelphi University Faculty Development Grant 2022-2023

Award Identifier / Grant number: Adelphi University Faculty Development Grant 2022-

Acknowledgments

The author gratefully acknowledges Dr. Helen M. Jenkins’s family for their permission to utilize Jenkins’s CDMNS in this study. The author would like to thank Professor Bernard Gorman from Adelphi University for his assistance in the data analysis and graduate assistant, Jaclyn Kischkower from Adelphi University for her contribution to data collection. Most importantly, the author’s thanks go to the nursing students who participated in this study. Our special thanks also go to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

Research ethics: The local Institutional Review Board deemed the study exempt from review (#030522).
Informed consent: Informed consent was implied by returning of an anonymous survey questionnaire.
Author contributions: The author has accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
Competing interests: The author states no conflict of interest.
Research funding: This work was supported by an Adelphi University Faculty Development Grant 2022-2023. The funding source is not involved in preparation of the manuscript. The funding organization played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.
Data availability: The raw data can be obtained on request from the corresponding author.

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Received: 2023-11-21

Accepted: 2024-05-14

Published Online: 2024-06-13

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/ijnes-2023-0115

Keywords for this article

cased-based learning; clinical decision-making; students; undergraduate nursing education; unfolding cases