[Learning the nursing process in nursing education].

Abstract

This article examines how students under two different kinds of curriculum (old and new) have learned to use the concept of the nursing process in the planning of patient care and assesses their attitudes towards the nursing process. The data were collected from 264 students at three schools of nursing and 63 qualified nurses (as a reference group), who were asked to plan the care of one patient. The plans were evaluated according to criteria aimed at ascertaining how well the students and nurses used the concept of the nursing process. Their attitudes towards this concept were evaluated using 24 statements measured on the Likert scale. The data were analyzed by factor analysis and an analysis of variance. The students at nursing school C following the new curriculum were best at planning patient care, while all those at nursing school A (studying under either the new or the old curriculum) were better at doing so than the students at school B or the nurses. The differences between the groups were statistically significant. The students following the new curriculum had statistically significantly more positive attitudes towards the nursing process those students following the old curriculum or the qualified nurses.