Assessing clinical reasoning under diagnostic uncertainty in psychiatric nurse practitioner preceptorship

Abstract Objective: This analysis examines the relationship between diagnostic uncertainty, observable clinical reasoning, and preceptor judgment.

Background

A major difficulty in assessing psychiatric nurse practitioner students exists when a clinical presentation supports no clear diagnosis. Therefore, agreement by a preceptor, the student's confidence level and the quality of the student's presentation, while useful to assess the student's clinical presentation skills, do not provide an adequate basis to determine if the student can interpret inconsistent clinical data and recognize the need for supervisor input.