effect of a problem-solving-based educational intervention on nursing students’ clinical decision-making: a randomized controlled trial

The present study aims to determine the effect of a problem-solving-based educational intervention on nursing students’ clinical decision-making. a randomized controlled trial was conducted with 50 undergraduate nursing students divided into test and control groups. the test group received eight training sessions focused on problem-solving strategies, while the control group engaged in traditional training methods. data were collected using a clinical decision-making questionnaire before and after the intervention. the findings revealed a significant increase in the average clinical decision-making scores of the test group after the intervention (from 68.84 (standard deviation [sd]=16.68) to 83.84 (sd=5.67), p<0.01). conversely, the control group showed no significant difference in scores (from 72.64 (sd=6.10) to 76.32 (sd=6.19), p=0.08). an independent t-test indicated a significant difference in clinical decision-making scores between the test and control groups post-intervention (p<0.01). problem-solving-based education significantly enhances the clinical decision-making skills of nursing students, highlighting the importance of incorporating this educational approach into nursing curricula to improve critical thinking and decision-making in clinical practice. further research with more diverse samples is recommended to validate these findings.