Abstract

BACKGROUND Assessment is the most fundamental part of any curriculum, because it can help identify and resolve the weaknesses of the curriculum. Evidence shows that to accurately evaluate the clinical reasoning as one of the essential skills of nursing students in diagnosing and solving clinical problems of patients, it is better to use problem-based assessment methods. We wanted to determine the effect of triple-jump examination (TJE) based assessment on the clinical reasoning of nursing interns in 2017. METHODS In this quasi experimental study, all nursing interns were selected based on the census sampling and randomly divided into two groups- control (n=20) and experimental (n=20). First, routine assessment was carried out in both groups. After completing the internship course in the respiratory ward, the assessment was carried out using TJE method in the experimental group and routine method in the control group. TJE-based assessment included three stages of presenting clinical scenarios to students, allocating time to studying and searching in electronic resources, and finally responding to clinical scenario questions. Clinical scenarios of common respiratory diseases such as tuberculosis, pneumonia and emphysema were designed based on library studies, and validity and reliability of these scenarios were also approved by experts. The overall score of the test was 0-20. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS ver. 23 and independent t-test, paired t-test, Wilcoxon, chi square test, and Chi-square tests. RESULTS The mean +/- standard deviation (SD) of the clinical reasoning score of the experimental group was 12.97 +/- 1.09 before the intervention, which increased to 14.57 +/- 1.35 after intervention and were statistically significant (p<0.001). Mean +/- SD of the clinical reasoning score of the control group increased from 12 +/- 1.24 to 12.50 +/- 1.20, and was also reported to be statistically significant (p=0.001). The change in the clinical reasoning mean score in the experimental group (1.60 +/- 1.01) was more than the control group (0.57 +/- 0.51), which was statistically significant (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS The results showed that TJE-based assessment is a suitable method for assessing the clinical reasoning skills of nursing students; it also increases students' level of satisfaction. Therefore, the inclusion of such new method in clinical assessment programs is recommended to improve clinical skills of nursing students.