The relationship between knowledge and clinical performance in novice and experienced critical care nurses
published online 23 February 2009.
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to measure directly the knowledge and performance of novice and experienced critical care nurses in a simulated task environment.
Methods
Nurses were required to control the physiologic deterioration of patients with respiratory compromise in 4 scenarios and were also tested on their knowledge of the constructs present in the scenarios.
Results
The results indicate that experienced nurses possessed highly superior knowledge when compared with novice nurses (P < .001). The results further demonstrated a lack of reliable differences in actual clinical performance when nurses were considered solely on the basis of their term of experience. Group differences in performance were demonstrated only when nurses who had achieved board certification in critical care nursing were compared with the remaining participants.
Conclusion
The results demonstrate the lack of linkage between knowledge and clinical performance, which calls into question the supposition by many in nursing that knowledge and performance are inextricably linked.
aCollege of Nursing, The Florida State University Tallahassee, Tallahassee, Florida
bDepartment of Psychology and The Learning Systems Institute, The Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
cThe Learning Systems Institute and Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, The Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
Corresponding author: James Whyte IV, RM 415, Vivian Duxbury Hall, Florida State University, Tallahassee Florida, 32310-4310
This research was funded by the Office of Naval Research grant N00014-04-1-0588 and N00014-05-1-0785.
ABSTRACT