Teaching Nursing Process, Improving Clinical Judgment, and Concept-Based Instruction: A Teaching Strategy for the Transitional Period

Abstract

Introduction: Technological advancement and changes in demand for quality health care have resulted in changes in health care services. As health care has become more complex, nursing institutions in Thailand and other countries are currently facing challenges in preparing nursing students to exercise their nursing process and clinical judgment to provide quality care to clients. Many nursing institutions have implemented various teaching strategies to improve clinical judgment to ensure the capacity of new graduate nurses to provide safe nursing care to their clients. Therefore, the authors present a strategy to teach the nursing process and improve clinical judgment in nursing students. Using standardized patients as a strategy allowed students to implement every step of the nursing process to develop a plan of care to enhance the health of individuals with health deviations in the community. However, the use of standardized patients had
some limitations. Standardized patients who lived in the community did not represent the patients with critical
conditions who require complex care in health care facilities. Thus, practicing with standardized patients
in the community did not provide students with opportunities to develop clinical judgment skills necessary to care for patients with complex health conditions. It is necessary to assign activities involving clinical judgment skills for students to learn, develop clinical judgment skills, and achieve the learning outcomes. Conclusion: The authors present a strategy to teach the nursing process and enhance clinical judgment and describe a concept-based teaching approach to enhance students’ ability to implement the nursing process and improve clinical judgment to promote patient safety and quality care.