CRITICAL THINKING OF BEGINNING BACCALAUREATE NURSING STUDENTS DURING THE FIRST CLINICAL NURSING COURSE.
Contributors: Kent State University.
Published: 1994
Number of pages: 309
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Education, Curriculum and Instruction.; Education, Adult and Continuing.
Description: Critical thinking has been designated as a major outcome criterion of nursing education (NLN, 1991). In today's society, nurses need to be prepared to think critically to deal with clients' diverse and complex health care needs. The purpose of this study was to describe and derive insights of the critical thinking of seven beginning baccalaureate nursing students during their first clinical nursing course. Students' reflective journal writing, interviews, and the researcher's nonparticipatory lab observations were primary data sources used to construct portraits which described the personal world of beginning students. With the current nursing student population comprised of increasing numbers of nontraditional students, critical thinking in both traditional and nontraditional beginning nursing students was explored.

Critical thinking was defined in this study as a reasoning process in which students reflected on their ideas, actions, and decisions related to clinical experiences. Qualitative methodology using the case study approach described students' critical thinking through weekly reflective journal writing over 12 weeks, through three 30 minute interviews, and through the researcher's nonparticipatory lab observation. Participants' journals and audio taped interviews were analyzed using methods described by Miles and Huberman (1994) and Spradley (1979). Students' reflections were coded and placed into reflection domains and categories. Paul's (1993a) dimensions of reasoning was used to describe students' critical thinking.

The organizing theme for the study findings was perspective development. Perspectives of beginning nursing students developed through their reflections and critical thinking in making clinical decisions. Four major themes revealed through the data analysis were: development of the professional self-perspective with orchestration of the emotional self, development of a perfectionist perspective, development of a caring perspective, and development of a self-directed learning perspective. Similarities and differences were identified in the reflections and critical thinking of traditional and nontraditional students.

The descriptive nature of the study illustrated that beginning students do indeed think critically. Students conveyed a need to share their clinical experiences through journal writing and interview discussion. A nonjudgmental and supportive environment promoted students' critical thinking as reflective practitioners and facilitated students' development as individuals and as professionals.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-06, Section: B, page: 3130.

Thesis (PH.D.)--KENT STATE UNIVERSITY, 1994.

School code: 0101.