Decision-Making in Nursing Students With Different Experience Levels Under Varying Task Complexities: A Pilot Eye-Tracking Study

BACKGROUND: Effective decision-making is essential in nursing but often underdeveloped in students and novice nurses. Eye-tracking offers a real-time, objective way to study decision processes. METHODS: A pilot observational study was conducted, dividing nursing students into high- and low-experience groups based on internship exposure. Participants performed intravenous infusion preparation tasks of varying complexity. Eye-tracking and visualization techniques were used to analyze gaze patterns and decision-making trajectories. RESULTS: Under low-complexity conditions, both groups showed fewer fixations and shorter durations. As complexity increased, low-experience students exhibited more and longer fixations with frequent gaze shifts, while high-experience students maintained shorter fixation times, fewer transitions, and more organized attention. CONCLUSIONS: Task complexity and clinical experience may influence decision-making. Higher task complexity prompted a shift from intuitive to analytical processing, occurring earlier among less-experienced students. Findings support incorporating complexity-based tasks and expanded practice into nursing education to foster efficient, patient-centered decision-making skills.