Barriers to physical assessment skills in nurses and nursing students: A comparative-descriptive and cross-sectional study


Creative Commons License

Bıyık Bayram Ş., Gülnar E., Özveren H.

International Journal of Human Science, vol.19, no.1, pp.46-55, 2022 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)

Abstract

Research Problem/Aim:Physical assessment is an integral part of nursing interventions and an important learning outcome of nurse training programs. This paper investigated impediments preventing nurses and nursing students from putting physical assessment skills into practice.Method:This was a comparative-descriptive and cross-sectional study.The sample consisted of 95 nurses and 118nursing students. Data were gatheredusing a Demographic Characteristics Questionnaire, a Physical Assessment Knowledge and Practice Questionnaire, and the Barriers to Nurses’ Use of Physical Assessment Scale. Findings: Nurses and students had a mean age of 30.53±7.14 and 21.80 ±0.77,respectively. Most nurses (87.3%) and students (96.6%) stated that they used physical assessment skills in clinical settings. Nurseshad a mean Barriers to Nurses’ Use of Physical Assessment Scale “lack of time and interruptions,” “lack of influence on patient care,” subscale score of 3.30±0.69, 3.77±0.79, respectively. Studentshad a mean the Barriers to Nurses’ Use of Physical Assessment Scale “lack of time and interruptions” and “lack of influence on patient care,” subscale score of 3.36±0.65, and 3.96±0.75, respectively.Students had a higher mean Barriers to Nurses’ Use of Physical Assessment Scale “ward culture”subscalescore than nurses (p=0.001).Conclusion: Students had a significantly higher Barriers to NursesUse of Physical Assessment Scale ward culturesubscale score than nurses. The barriers preventing participants from using physical assessment skills mainly were the “lack of influence on patient care,lack of time and interruptions,and specialty area.Educators should encourage nursing students to develop physical assessment skills and put them into practice in laboratories. Hospital administrators should providenurseswith in-service training to execute their physical assessment skills in real-life clinical settings.Keywords: Barrier;nurse; nursing students;physical assessment1Ph.D, RN, Assistant Professor, Kırıkkale University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Nursing Department, imel84@hotmail.comOrcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4766-89272Ph.D, RN, Assistant Professor, Karadeniz Technical University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing, sulebiyik@gmail.comOrcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9842-15883Ph.D, RN,Associate Professor, Dr., KırıkkaleUniversity, Faculty of Health Sciences, Nursing Department, ozverenhusna@gmail.comOrcid ID:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2724-5580Submitted:19/10/2021Published:10/03/2022