Effectiveness of Educational Technology Involving Concept Maps During Debriefing for Clinical Reasoning: A Quasiexperimental Study

Background: Poor clinical reasoning impairs the identification of signs and symptoms in patients and compromises patient safety. Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of educational technology involving a concept map during debriefing for clinical reasoning compared with conventional didactic lectures. Method: This is a quasiexperimental study. Fifty‐five nursing students were randomly assigned to the intervention or control groups. Results: Compared with the control group, the intervention group presented statistically significant differences in the identification of clinical indicators ( p < 0.0125). There was a statistically significant difference in performance between the pretest and posttest scores of the intervention group in terms of the identification of a nursing diagnosis, causal factors, and clinical indicators ( p < 0.0125). Higher scores were also observed in the Diagnostic Reasoning Inventory assessment ( p < 0.0125). Conclusions: Compared with conventional didactic lectures, concept maps during debriefing resulted in performance improvements in clinical reasoning skills. Trial Registration: Brazilian Clinical Trials Registry (ReBEC): RBR‐7qjpn6