Nursing students' perceptions of nursing diagnoses, critical thinking motivations, and problem-solving skills during distance learning: A multicentral study

Purpose To determine the relationship between attitude towards nursing diagnosis, critical thinking motivation, and problem-solving skills of nursing students during distance learning. Method The descriptive and correlational study was conducted with 450 first-year nursing students from four universities. The "Positions on Nursing Diagnosis Scale," "Critical Thinking Motivational Scale," and "Problem Solving Inventory" were used for data collection in June-July 2021. Findings The students' mean score of nursing diagnosis perception was 114.90 +/- 18.47, the score for expectancy main subdimension of critical thinking motivation was 4.17 +/- 1.16 and the score for value main subdimension was 4.81 +/- 1.12, and score for problem-solving skills was 90.65 +/- 19.03. A statistically significant positive correlation was found between nursing diagnosis perception and subdimension of critical thinking motivation scores (p < 0.001) and problem-solving skills score (p < 0.001). The linear regression model established to examine the effect of other scales on nursing diagnosis perception was found to be statistically significant (F = 17.516, p < 0.001). As the expectancy score increases by one unit, the perception of nursing diagnosis score increases 3.452 times (p = 0.001), the cost score increases by one unit, the perception of nursing diagnosis score increases by 3.894 (p = 0.001), and the problemsolving skills score increases by one unit, the perception of nursing diagnosis score decreases by 0.246 (p < 0.001). Conclusions To conclude that nursing diagnosis perception, critical thinking motivation, and problem-solving skills of nursing students were high and have a relationship with each other during distance education. As nursing diagnosis perception scores of students increase, their critical thinking motivation and problem-solving skills also increase. Implications for Nursing Practice The high skills of critical thinking and problem solving have an important place effectively to identify the nursing diagnosis more quickly and easily in the nursing care process.