Assessment of knowledge, attitudes, and performance of postgraduate nursing students regarding clinical reasoning and evidence-based nursing: a multicenter cross-sectional study in Iran

The findings of this empirical investigation revealed that postgraduate students across both master's and doctoral programs demonstrated exceptionally favorable mean scores in all three components of clinical reasoning and evidence-based nursing: knowledge, attitude, and practice. Of particular significance was the observation that doctoral students consistently achieved substantially higher mean scores across these components compared to their counterparts in master's programs. The findings from this investigation offer valuable implications for nursing education administrators in their ongoing efforts to enhance educational outcomes. These results provide a robust framework through which administrators can systematically evaluate nursing students' knowledge, attitudes, and performance in both clinical reasoning and evidence-based nursing practice.