The Effect of Preclinical Empowerment Education in Pediatric Nursing on Clinical Comfort, Competency of the Course, and Self-Confidence and Anxiety in Clinical Decision-Making

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of pre-clinical structured empowerment education of intern nursing students on self-confidence and anxiety in clinical decision-making, pediatric clinical comfort and perceived anxiety, and perceived pediatric nursing competency. Material and Methods: A quasi-experimental study design was used. A total of 64 nursing students (experimental group = 32; comparison group = 32) participated in the study. Before the clinical practice, a program that consisted of six scenarios, whose learning goals were structured, and in which pediatric skills were supported, was applied to the intern students in the experimental group for two days. The data were collected using a Student Descriptive Information Form, the Nursing Anxiety and Self-Confidence with Clinical Decision-Making Scale, the Pediatric Nursing Competency Scale, and the Pediatric Nursing Student Clinical Comfort and Worry Assessment Tool, which were applied as a pretest and posttest. The mean pre-test and post-test scores of both groups were compared. Results: There was a difference in favor of the intervention group in the worry sub-dimension of the Pediatric Nursing Student Clinical Comfort and Worry Assessment Tool (p0.05). There was a significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental and control groups on the Pediatric Nursing Competency Scale in favor of the intervention group (p