Self-Confidence and Anxiety as Intervening Factors in Clinical Decision-Making in Newly Nursing Bachelor Graduates

The Clinical Decision-Making (CDM) is essential for the nursing professional practice. However, newly nursing bachelor graduates are not always ready to make clinical decisions. Therefore, the identification of self-confidence and anxiety as emotional barriers during this process will allow teaching/learning strategies to generate educational strategies of teaching-learning that support its development. The objective is to evaluate the levels of self-confidence and anxiety in newly nursing bachelor graduates and compare them to each CDM′s dimension. The method for this study was descriptive, comparative and cross-sectional. The“Nursing Anxiety and Self-Confidence with Clinical Decision Making Scale (NASC-CDM)” was applied. Results: It was found that 69% of the newly nursing bachelor graduates had a high level of self-confidence and 66% a low level of anxiety. Significant statistical differences were found in the levels of self-confidence of the newly nursing bachelor graduates in accordance with their employment situation; the averages in the anxiety level were higher, although there were no significant statistical differences. It can be concluded that the higher level of self-confidence possessed by the newly nursing bachelor graduates, the lower the level of anxiety, with the exception of those who have nursing working experience. It is necessary for nursing educators to emphasize the development of skills for knowing and acting, because students need to incorporate them cognitively and intuitively in the complete clinical scenario, in order to have one or more options of decision. The low self-confidence level and the high anxiety level are emotional barriers that intervene in CDM, because they block or interfere the assertive decision-making process. This explains why deliberative strategies have to be implemented in the curricular level