Developing and Testing of a Software Prototype to Support Diagnostic Reasoning of Nursing Students.

Purpose: To design and test educational software to improve nursing students' diagnostic reasoning through NANDA-I-based clinical scenarios.

Methods: A mixed method approach was used and included content validation by a panel of 13 experts and prototype testing by a sample of 56 students.

Findings: Experts' suggestions included writing adjustments, new response options, and replacement of clinical information on the scenarios. Percentages of students' correct answers were 65.7%, 62.2%, and 60.5% for related factors, defining characteristics, and nursing diagnoses, respectively.

Conclusion: Full development of this software shows strong potential for enhancing students' diagnostic reasoning.

Implications For Nursing Practice: New graduates may be able to apply diagnostic reasoning more rapidly by exercising their diagnostic skills within this software.