Addressing the psychosocial needs of patients: Challenges for nursing students

Purpose To evaluate the ability of nursing students to determine the psychosocial needs of patients and identify the needs and problems encountered by nursing students. Design and methods This study is a mixed method research. The nursing care plans of 40 nursing students that provided care to 129 patients with chronic medical diseases were examined retrospectively. Individual interviews were also conducted with five nursing students and six academicians. Findings It was determined that nursing students defined an average of 15.77 +/- 11.55 physiological and an average of 3.05 +/- 2.28 psychosocial nursing diagnoses for 129 patients. Data analysis of individual interviews revealed two main themes: (1) identifying psychosocial diagnoses: teaching difficulties and (2) identifying psychosocial diagnoses: learning difficulties. Practice implications This can facilitate the learning process of each student to include physiological and a psychosocial care focus in their nursing care through discussions and evaluation with their mentors and instructors.