Nurse facilitators' perception regarding the facilitation of the development of clinical reasoning skills

Abstract

An important requirement for the professional nurse in South Africa is to formulate an individual care plan based on the presenting data of a patient. This plan aims to treat the current condition of a patient, as well as prevent further complications surrounding the condition. To rationalise the decision made, a professional nurse needs to apply clinical reasoning skills. A student nurse needs to acquire nursing skills during their training. The nurse facilitator is one of the role players to facilitate the clinical reasoning skills (CRS) of nurse students. It was, therefore important, to describe the nurse facilitator’s perception regarding the facilitation of the development of CRS of nurse students. The study aims to describe the nurse facilitator’s perceptions, opportunities, experienced during the facilitation of the development of CRS of students as well as their recommendations for better support in their task to facilitate CRS of students. Describing these perceptions, contributed to the formulation of recommendations to support the nurse facilitator in their role, to develop CRS in nurse students. A qualitative descriptive research design was utilised, using four open-ended questions embedded online through an organised file storage system developed by Google. A total of 53 nurse facilitators employed by a private nurse institute in South Africa were positively targeted. Data collection occurred over three weeks. The results uncovered four themes: Theory and practice integration; Resources; Student responsiveness and Facilitator competencies and eight (8) sub-themes namely: Theoretical knowledge; Scientific nurse process; Human resources; Physical resources; Lack of time for facilitation; Individual experience; Lack of like skills and Continuous Professional Development. The findings revealed the nurse facilitators’ accurate interpretation of the concept of CRS. The challenges experienced by the nurse facilitators that hinder the facilitation of the development of CRS of nurse students concurred with that described by the literature. The facilitators expressed creativity in the utilisation of opportunities when facilitating the development of CRS of students. Finally, they described needed support to assist them to facilitate the development of CRS of students.