Objective:
The purpose of this study was to describe nursing students’ problem-solving behaviors.
Method:
The descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted. Totally 536 Chinese nursing students from four cities were investigated in voluntary by filling out Chinese Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised (C-SPSI-R).
Result:
The response rate was 90.5%. The item means of subscales were 2.07±0.79 for rational problem solving, 2.21±0.72 for positive problem orientation, 1.31±0.81 for negative problem orientation, 0.72±0.69 for avoidance style, and 1.00±0.80 for impulsivity / carelessness style. There was no difference based on gender, but students with experience in small group learning, self-directed learning or PBL achieved better problem solving than those without such experience. The final year students demonstrated highest scores of positive problem solving. The findings indicated a significant variance of each subscale in students from different cities.
Conclusion:
This existing variation in students’ problem solving is helpful in identifying student characteristic and adopting appropriate teaching strategies for promoting students’ problem solving. Due to the multidimensional aspects of problem solving, both qualitative and quantitative approaches should be utilized to assess nursing students’ problem-solving behaviors.
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