Training Pediatric Novice Nurse In Critical Thinking Ability In The Clinical Situation

For many years, nursing educators around the world have been investigating strategies to train high quality nursing professionals. As a result, critical thinking has been considered as a core competency of the excellent nursing practice, and has become one of the pivotal tasks and outcomes of modern nursing education. Knowing how to training novice nurses in critical thinking ability in the clinical situation is important for both individual professional development and for the nursing profession in general. This study investigates this field and is composed of the following three chapters:Chapter one,theory-based study. Information on critical thinking theory and application from home and abroad is reviewed. In particular, a theory-based study and structural analysis methodology was used: to review a brief history of critical thinking; to compose a definition of critical thinking; to understand the meaning of this definition; and, to learn how to cultivate and assess it. Based on a comprehensive understanding of critical thinking theory,"critical thinking of nursing"was defined in this study as"an outcome-directed, reasonable and reflective thinking and a self-regulatory judgment that is based on knowleges, skills and experience of nursing practice". Information gained from this review of theory provided guidelines for the positivist study outlined in the next chapter.Chapter two, positivist study: to train pediatric novice nurses to critical thinking in the clinical situation. A randomized control trail of quantitative research combined with a phenomenological approach of qualitative research was the method used in this study. 47 pediatric novice nurses were divided into two groups according to the educational background: a trail group and a control group. The novice nurses received 18 months of instruction based on normal hospital training guidelines; and included three 6-month phases ,during which novice nurses were equally trained in medical wards, surgical wards and outpatient department in turn. In the first phase, routine training was given for both the control and trial groups. During the second and the third phase, besides the same routine training program as the control group received, the trial group received special training courses built on the principles of critical thinking and journal writing. At the beginning , the middle and the end of the 18 months training period, all the participants were tested by Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory-Chinese Version(CTDI-CV). Results were analyzed by SPSS 12.0. Unobtrusive observation, in-depth interviews and writing materials were used to record the personal experiences of the participants in the clinical learning process. Conclusion and suggestion: Pediatric novice nurses have weak critical thinking abilities. Further, results show that without purposeful training in critical thinking, normal clinical training does not increase this ability of novice nurses. We strongly recommended journal writing as a simple and effective training method to help novice nurses develop a capacity for critical thinking..This study provides information which may help nursing educators to develop training programmes in critical thinking for novice nurses in the future.