Barriers of physical assessment skills among nursing students in Arab Peninsula

OBJECTIVE: There is a growing demand for health-care nursing services in several health care institutions. Understanding barriers to physical assessment among nursing students create a more detailed assessment in the development of quality patient’s care in nursing practice. This study examined the barriers to physical assessment skills among nursing students in a government university in Arab Peninsula. METHODS: A cross-sectional research survey design of 206 nursing students using a standardized questionnaire was used. The questionnaire is composed of 7 subscales in evaluating the barriers to physical assessment skills between the classroom and clinical setting. Independent Samples t-test was used in comparing the gender mean of the nursing students about the barriers to physical assessment. Paired t-test was also used in determining the differences between perceived barriers to physical assessment in the classroom and clinical setting. RESULTS: Subscale “reliance on others and technology,” ward culture, “lack of influence on patient care” have significant differences between perceived barriers in physical assessment among classroom settings and clinical setting. CONCLUSION: Although nursing students were oriented and educated about physical assessment in the nursing curriculum, this is not often practiced in clinical settings. The point that is if nursing students are incorrectly performing the patient assessment, then no amount of critical thinking could lead to better clinical decisions. Continuous exposure and enhancing the quality of planning and promotion of the nursing students could develop necessary skills. In addition, increasing self-confidence is vital to assess the patient’s health status effectively and minimize the barriers to performing the physical assessment.