Factors Influencing Problem-Solving Competence of Nursing Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Problem-solving ability is an important competency for nursing students to enable them to solve various problems that occur in dynamic clinical settings. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to identify the factors that affect the problem-solving ability of nursing students. The subjects of this study were 192 nursing college students in their second year or beyond. The research tool consisted of an online questionnaire, with a total of 91 items regarding general characteristics, metacognition, and communication competence. Data collection was conducted from 10 to 30 March 2022. An online survey link was uploaded to the student group of a social network service from two nursing colleges that permitted data collection. Subjects who agreed to participate directly accessed and responded to the online survey. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and the factors associated with the problem-solving ability of nursing students were examined using hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The subjects’ mean problem-solving ability score was 3.63 out of 5. Factors affecting problem-solving ability were age, communication competence, and metacognition, among which metacognition had the greatest influence. These variables explained 51.2% of the problem-solving ability of nursing students. Thus, it is necessary to provide guidance to improve metacognition and to develop educational methods to improve communication competence in curricular and non-curricular courses to improve the problem-solving ability of nursing students.