Perceptions of Turkish Nursing Students on Nursing Diagnoses

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to determine how Turkish nursing students' perceived nursing diagnosis. Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out with 655 nursing students in the Departments of Nursing in the Health Sciences Faculties of two universities, in the Aegean and western Black Sea Region, between 15 February and 5 April 2020. The Students Information Form and Perceptions of Nursing Diagnosis Scale were used for data collection. The independent samples t-test, one-way ANOVA test, and the Mann-Whitney U-test with Bonferroni-correction were used to determine the differences between the groups. Pearson correlation analysis was used to determine the effects of independent variables Results: The mean age of the nursing students was 21.12 +/- 1.39; 76.6% of them were female and 36.8% were in the second-year. 53.7% of the nursing students reported that they had difficulty in making nursing diagnoses. The overall Perceptions of Nursing Diagnosis Survey score of the nursing students was found to be 2.46 +/- 051. Statistically significant difference was found between Perceptions of Nursing Diagnosis Survey scores in terms of gender (p=0.012), the necessity of nursing diagnosis (p<0.001), and having sufficient knowledge about nursing diagnosis (p=0.019). Conclusions: The findings of this study have revealed that Turkish nursing students' perceptions of nursing diagnoses are positive. It is important that use effective teaching methods in teaching nursing diagnoses in fundamental nursing education, to give more importance to nursing diagnoses. It is recommended to plan qualitative studies to in-depth examine students' perceptions with randomized controlled studies involving innovative educational interventions in the future.