Abstract

Background: Clinical judgment (CJ) is a complex process and is one of the most important concepts in the domain of education of the nursing students. Despite the special importance of its concept in nursing, this term still has not created an equal perception in the minds of many experts in the nursing education and no study has been done in order to define and explain this concept by concept analysis of the "CJ" in the educational domain. Objectives: The current study was done with the purpose of determining dimensions and features of this concept in the domain of clinical education of nursing students in Iran. Methods: The design of this study is qualitative with concept analysis method and hybrid model approach. It was done in three phases that were described by Walker and Avant. In the theoretical stage, reviews on the related and valid articles were accomplished. The articles were assessed and analyzed in order to present the working definition. In the stage of field work, the interview was done with 17 participants including 7 nursing students, 6 teachers, and 4 clinical instructors. In the final stage, the general analysis was done and the antecedents, attributes, and the consequences of the concept were extracted. Results: According to the final analysis, CJ for the nursing students is a cognitive and reasoning process, in order to achieve which, the nursing students by guidance of teachers in a secure clinical environment, assess the patients' needs, interpret, and evaluate the patients' response to the clinical practice and then reflect and perform the critical evaluation of the patients' conditions. In the meanwhile, making effective clinical decisions, increasing the trust of patient and quality of care, the necessary conditions for the promotion of their professional competence will be provided. Conclusions: In the concept analysis of CJ, some of the needed conditions for CJ in the nursing students have not been reported in the studies.