Examination of nursing diagnosis skills of students receiving online education: A cross-sectional study

Aim

This study aims to examine the nursing diagnosis skills of students who took the case-based online nursing processes course during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

The study followed a descriptive and cross-sectional design. The participants were first-year students (n = 148) enrolled in the nursing principles course in the spring semester of the 2020–2021 academic year in the nursing department of a university. The course on nursing processes was delivered online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of the course, students who volunteered to participate in the study developed nursing diagnoses for the cases assigned to them. The data were collected from the students using two forms and were evaluated using a form developed by the researchers. The data were analyzed with numeric and percentage calculations.

Findings

Although 56.8% of the students stated that they had difficulty making nursing diagnoses, 56.8% of them thought online education was not useful. The most commonly made diagnoses by the students who participated in the study included hyperthermia (66.2%), ineffective breathing pattern (54.7%), risk of falling (39.9%), fatigue (34.5%), and anxiety (33.8%). It was also found that students were able to identify objective data more easily as diagnosis criteria, whereas they were not able to identify abstract concepts.

Conclusions

It was seen that the students who participated in the study had low levels of nursing diagnoses. Based on the findings, it is recommended that different teaching methods be employed in the online nursing processes course, and these methods be evaluated in terms of their effects on students’ learning outcomes.

Implications for nursing practices

The online nursing process course should be made more efficient. First-year nursing students are not yet ready to identify nursing diagnoses in terms of knowledge and skills.