Assessment of Critical Thinking Teaching Skills among Faculty Nursing Students

Abstract

critical thinking in fields of health care is one of the fundamental requirements to provide health care in the highest level. Meanwhile, providing nurses with critical thinking skills plays a significant role in enabling the nursing profession to become a discipline believing in science and practice through scientific research and evidence-based applications. Professional nursing education prepares students to use critical thinking and problem-solving skills to analyze situations and make decisions pertinent to patient care. Meanwhile, nurse educators realize the importance of teaching critical thinking skills to students and are aware that these skills can be developed by devising teaching methods that stimulate higher-level thinking in theory and practice. National and international nursing institutions and accreditation institutions emphasize the importance of including critical thinking in education programs, and consider critical thinking as one of the evaluation criteria. Aim of the Study: The aim of the study was to assess the critical thinking teaching skills among Faculty nursing students through: • Assess the students’ knowledge regarding to critical thinking. • Assess the Nursing Faculty staffs’ application to critical thinking teaching skills in their clinical practice. Subjects and Methods: Research design: A descriptive design was utilized in conducting the current study. Setting: The study was conducted at the Faculty Nursing affiliated to Ain Shams University. The Faculty has four Academic years. Each year is belonging to nursing department. Subjects: Nursing students in the first, second, third and fourth years those represent the six departments in the Faculty of Nursing. An equal number of nursing students were selected randomly from each year. Total 204 nursing students selected randomly out of 818 nursing students enrolled in the academic year 2012-2013. The stratified random sample which selected represents 25% of all nursing students. The second subjects included in the study were faculty staff members, selected randomly from each department. Total 30 faculty staff members selected randomly out of 100 faculty staff members enrolled in the academic year 2012-2013. They represent 30% of all Faculty staff members. Tools of data collection: Two tools were used to collect the necessary data: Tool I: The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) Scale (Appendix I) The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) Scale adapted from Facione et al., (2000), it was modified by the researcher to assess nursing students’ knowledge about critical thinking. The CCTDI Scale translated into Arabic language to suit all students’ level of understanding. It included (2) parts: ○ Part I: It concerned with demographic characteristics of the studied students as age, academic year and previous education before enrolling the faculty. It also assessed studied students’ knowledge about critical thinking as definition, characteristics and importance…etc. ○ Part II: It concerned with assessment of the critical thinking approach among faculty students. It consists of 60 items grounded into seven dispositional characteristics to include the following: