Background <p>Clinical reasoning is a core competency in nursing education. Despite its importance, Vietnam lacks a validated instrument to measure nursing students’ clinical reasoning, limiting opportunities for evaluating this essential competency. Therefore, this study aimed to translate the Clinical Reasoning Scale (CRS) into Vietnamese and examine the psychometric properties of the Vietnamese version (CRS-V).</p> Methods <p>Data were collected from senior nursing students at ten 3-year colleges and 4-year universities across northern, central, and southern Vietnam. In total, 600 senior nursing students participated in this study. The CRS-V was cross-culturally adapted and administered via an online survey. Its validity was examined through content validity, concurrent validity, and construct validity using both exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha, McDonald’s omega, and a test–retest analysis.</p> Results <p>The CRS-V had a good content validity index with scores ranging 0.85–1 for the items and an excellent overall content validity index of 0.96. The exploratory factor analysis identified a single factor comprising 16 items. The confirmatory factor analysis provided an acceptable fit model with one factor. The scale demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.96, McDonald’s ω = 0.97). The test-retest stability of the CRS-V was good with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.83 (95% confidence interval = 0.74, 0.89). No floor or ceiling effects were observed.</p> Conclusions <p>This study provides initial evidence supporting the validity and reliability of the CRS-V among Vietnamese nursing students. Although the CRS-V may be useful for assessing clinical reasoning in nursing education, further validation studies are needed before broader educational or evaluative applications can be strongly recommended.</p> Trial registration number <p>Not applicable.</p>