THE RELATIONSHIP OF CRITICAL THINKING ABILITY, STAGE OF SKILL ACQUISITION, YEARS OF PRACTICE, AND ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT TO PROFESSIONAL NURSING COMPETENCE.
Contributors: University of Minnesota.
Published: 1991
Number of pages: 123
Subjects: Education, Higher.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this research was to study the socialization process and subsequent development of professional nursing competence in order to determine whether individual factors such as critical thinking ability, stage of skill acquisition, years of practice, and contextual factors such as clinical area of practice and organizational influences, affect successful competence development of practicing professional nurses.

The conceptual framework for this study was adapted from a model of socialization by Weidman (1989), and included anticipatory, occupational (formal and informal) and personal socialization. Eight research questions were investigated. A randomly selected cross-sectional sample of a single institution's baccalaureate nursing graduates (N = 121) from years 1985 through 1990 was utilized. Longitudinal critical thinking measurements of two cohorts (N = 30) of the sample group were used. Instruments included survey data, Six-Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance (Schwirian, 1978), Stage of Skill Acquisition (Benner, 1984) and the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (Watson & Glaser, 1980). Qualitative and quantitative data analysis methodologies were used.

Relationships were investigated between factors of anticipatory socialization (stage of skill acquisition and critical thinking ability); occupational socialization (contextual aspects of the institution, area of practice, socializing experiences such as education, years of experience and influence of colleagues/mentors); and personal socialization as demonstrated by professional competencies (6-D Scale) of leadership, critical care, teaching/collaboration, planning/evaluation, interpersonal communication, professional development and critical thinking ability.

Significant relationships were demonstrated between critical care skills and advanced education; stage of skill acquisition with professional competencies and years of experience. An unexpected finding was that critical thinking ability had no relationship to level of competence or stage of skill acquisition. Critical thinking ability did not change significantly during the educational experience (sophomore to senior), however, a significant increase was found in scores as practicing nurses.

Processes of anticipatory and occupational socialization had minimal effect on competence. The experiential component of socialization emerged as the key influencing factor on competence and critical thinking.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-07, Section: A, page: 2428.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, 1991.

School code: 0130.