Senior Nursing Students’ Perceptions of Individualised Care and Nursing Diagnoses

Objectives: The study determined the perceptions of individualised care and nursing diagnoses of senior intern and non-intern nursing students studying at two universities. Methods: A descriptive and correlational design was used in this study. It was carried out with a total of 194 (intern student nurses = 100, non-intern student nurses = 94) senior students studying at two different public universities, considering the impact of the study and not using any sampling method. Data were collected using a Student Information Form, Individualised Care Scale-A-Nurse (ICS-A-Nurse), and the Perceptions of Nursing Diagnosis Scale (PNDS). The significance level was set as p<0.05. Analyses were performed using the SPSS-28 software package. Results: The mean age was 22.60±2.29 years for the intern nursing students and 21.89±1.71 years for the non-intern nursing students. There was no statistically significant difference between the mean perception of individualised care scores of the interns and non-interns. The mean score on the total perceptions of nursing diagnosis scale was 2.36±0.76 in intern nursing students and 3.85±0.60 in non-intern students, and the difference between the two was statistically significant (p<0.001). A positive low (r=0.243) and moderate (r=0.622) correlation was found between the mean scores of the intern nursing students on the total ICS-A and PNDS. The linear regression model established between intern nursing students' ICS-A and PNDS scale scores yielded a statistically significant difference (F= 4.673, p<0.001). Similarly, a statistically significant difference was found in the same model for non-intern nursing students (F=57.948, p<0.001). Conclusion: There was a significant correlation between students’ perceptions of individualised care and nursing diagnoses. This finding is essential in determining problems during the perception of individualised care and reflecting on how the problems related to the individual will be evaluated. It can be recommended that more studies be carried out to increase the functionality and effectiveness of the nursing process in solving patients’ problems so that the process can positively affect the perception of individualised care and nursing diagnosis.