Background and objective : Clinical decision-making is an essential part of nursing practice, constantly used by nurses in order to take care of patients. While some studies have recognized that teaching the clinical decision- making skills has always accompanied problems, an important goal of baccalaureate nursing education is student nurses’ development of skilled clinical decision-making. The purpose of this study is to measure the clinical decision-making skills among the fourth-year baccalaureate nursing students.

  Material and methods: A descriptive cross-sectional method was used in this study. All nursing students (n=61) from Tehran University of Medical Sciences were selected through census sampling. Two research instruments including Jenkins’s clinical decision making scale in nursing and simulated situations’ questionnaire, and a demographic data sheet were used for data collection. Data were analyzed by SPSS software package. Statistical tests including t test, Pearson, Spearman, Bivariate correlation coefficients was applied for data analysis.

  Results: The findings showed that the clinical decision-making skill (CDMS) in the fourth-year baccalaureate nursing students was approximately average. The mean score achieved by nursing students about CDMS was a little higher than average (51.6 ^± 6.6). The baccalaureate degree nursing students score was inadequate regarding subscales of CDMS including constant evaluation of consequences, canvassing of objectives and values, search for alternatives and search for unbiased information. There was not a statistically significant correlation between demographic variables and CDMS scores.

  Conclusion: Although effective clinical decision making is one of the most important contributions made by the nursing professional in patient care, results of this study revealed that the skill of the student nurse clinical decision-making was inadequate. These results showed that baccalaureate nursing curriculum to develop such skill in students encounters important challenges. Further research is likely required to determine factors affecting learning this skill and expanding it.