Research Information System
5th Asian Congress in Nursing Education, İstanbul, Turkey, 24 - 25 November 2023, pp.83, (Summary Text)
Background: With the internship education program, nursing students take an active role in planning,
implementing, and evaluating patient care and experience clinical decision-making about patients. Due to
anxiety experienced by students in clinical decision-making process, erroneous clinical practices may occur,
and students may perform clinical misevaluation, erroneous decision-making, and incorrect patient care.
Aim: The aim of the study was to determine the relationship between intern nursing students' self-confidence
and anxiety levels in clinical decision-making and their malpractice trends.
Methods: The data of this descriptive and correlational study were collected from 132 senior intern nursing
students studying in nursing department of a state university in 2022-2023 academic year. Before starting the
study, permission was obtained from Ankara University Ethics Committee (No:56786525-
050.04.04/767968). Data were collected online using Personal Information Form, Nursing Anxiety and Self-
Confidence with Clinical Decision-Making Scale (high score means high self-confidence and anxiety) and
Malpractice Trend Scale in Nursing (high score means low malpractice trend).
Results: The mean age of students participating in the study was 22.46±1.03 years and 80.3% were female.
There was a positive correlation between total mean scores of students' malpractice trends and mean scores
of self-confidence in clinical decision-making (r= 0.170, p= 0.05) and a negative correlation between mean
scores of anxiety in clinical decision-making (r= -0.222, p= 0.01). There was a low significant correlation
between mean score of "hospital infections", one of sub-dimensions of Malpractice Trend Scale in Nursing,
and both self-confidence (r= 0.223, p= 0.01) and anxiety (r= -0.212, p= 0.015), and there was a low significant
negative correlation between mean scores of "patient monitoring and equipment safety" and "falls" and mean
scores of anxiety in clinical decision-making (r= -0.193, p= 0.02; r= -0.201,p= 0.02, respectively).
Conclusion: Consequently, as students' self-confidence in clinical decision-making increases, their
malpractice trends decrease, and as their anxiety in clinical decision-making increases, their malpractice
trends increase. It is recommended to develop strategies to improve students' clinical decision-making skills
to ensure patient safety.