Comparative Perception of Nursing Interns’ Competence in Clinical Decision Making in Relation to Training Approaches in Kenya.

Abstract

The objective of the study wasto determine Nursing Interns’ perceptions on their competence in clinical decision making and the training approaches they went through. Further, it was to compare perceptionof Nursing Interns’ on competence in clinical decision making from two training approaches.Thestudy utilized the Kirkpatrick’s four-level model tomeasurethe effectiveness of training programs.Descriptive statistics were used whereby frequencies and percentages were calculated for categorical variables and measures of central tendency and dispersion for continuous data. The chi-square test with Pearson correlation was used to determine significant differences between ratings of perception of clinical decision making from interns of the two Nursing schools.There were twomajor findings of this study: Innovatively trained Nursing Interns scored relatively higher on perceptions of their Nursing knowledge, particularly in the areas of individual, family and community health decision making, communication, and the health care system. Interns’ showed no difference in relation to objectivity and clarity of expectations.Nursing Interns’ graduating from innovative training approaches was comparable to those from conventional training. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommendedthat a standard evaluation instrument for comparing graduates of innovative and conventional schools should be developed for evaluating their competence in clinical decision making.