| This study investigated the benefits of introducing handheld computer technology into undergraduate nursing education as a means to enhance the development of clinical decision-making skills in undergraduate nursing students. It explored how handheld technology can be used in nursing education to develop clinical decision-making skills and evaluated the effectiveness of using the Gerontological Reasoning Informatics Project (GRIP), a PDA-based assessment tool, to accomplish this goal. This case study used qualitative and quantitative methods, including field observations, 'on-the-spot' informal interviews and a follow-up phase of in-depth interviews. During phase one, clinical faculty identified and recorded the top three nursing care priorities of all patients prior to giving student assignments. Students conducted assessments for assigned patients utilizing the GRIP tool and also identified the top three nursing care priorities. The researcher conducted assessments, also recording the top three nursing care priorities. This data was analyzed to identify similarities between the three groups. Twenty-six senior nursing students and two clinical faculty participated in this study, assessing a total of 212 patients. Data collection also included in-depth interviews with 21 students and 2 faculty and field observation notes. The results suggest that handheld technology, equipped with a tool such as GRIP, effectively develops clinical competency and clinical decision-making skills in undergraduate nursing students. Students identified the top three nursing care priorities at a level of expertise that compared favorably with faculty experts however the exact relationship between the use of the PDA and the student ability to correctly identify these priorities remains unclear. About two thirds of participants reported that the PDA was a barrier to the nurse-patient interaction. Additional findings support the need to closely re-examine the GRIP tool, give serious consideration to modifying the tool to improve design and functionality and to build a web interface to support a virtual learning community of GRIP users. |
