AIM: This study was aimed to determine the problem solving skills of nursing students and the factors which affect them.
METHOD: This cross-sectional study was carried out with 353 nursing students attending in the School of Nursing between December 2009 and January 2010. In data collection, a Descriptive Information Questionnaire developed by the researchers and a Problem Solving Inventory (PSI) developed by Heppner Peterson (1982) were used. The Kruskall-Wallis test, t test, One-way Anova, Pearson and Spearman correlations were used for statistical comparison. A p-value less than 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant.
RESULTS: The mean age of students was 20.30±1.17. The students PSI mean score was 82.82±15.93. It was found that 51.3% of students evaluated themselves as a partially successful and 43.9% of students evaluated themselves as a quite successful in problem solving ability. The students stated that they have positive personality characteristics such as honesty (83.0%) and being tolerant (70.5%). The students who have positive personality characteristics and use a systematic approach to solving problems, perceived themselves as being sufficient in problem solving (p0.05).
CONCLUSION: In conclusion, it was found that students perceived themselves as sufficient in problem solving. Having a positive personality characteristics and evaluating problems with a systematic approach were found effective in problem solving.
Key words: nursing, student, problem solving ability Article Language: Turkish English
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