The Relationship Among Critical Thinking, Communication Ability And Perceived Self-efficacy In Nursing Students

Objective:(1)To investigate the levels of critical thinking,communication ability and perceived self-efficacy among nursing students;(2)To explore the relationship among critical thinking,communication ability and perceived self-efficacy in nursing students;(3)To give some advice about how to improve critical thinking.Methods:On the foundation of literature review,Critical Thinking Scale, Supportive Communication Scale and General Self-Efficacy Scale were used to investigate nursing students' levels of critical thinking,communication ability and perceived self-efficacy.There were 1018 nursing students participating in this study from three different schools of nursing in Shandong Province.The data were analyzed by SPSS11.5.Results:1.The score of nursing students' critical thinking was 3.54±0.31.Among all the factors,analyticity score＞open-mindedness score＞inquisitiveness score＞critical thinking self-confidence score＞maturity of judgment score＞truth-seeking score＞systematicity score(F=386.607,P＜0.001).By diversity test,the author found that urban students' critical thinking score and systematicity score were higher than rural students'(t=-2.035,P＜0.05;t=-2.340,P＜0.05);female students' analyticity score was higher than male students'(t=2.996,P＜0.01);there had been significantly difference in open-mindedness score and systematicity score among different grades (F=4.624,P＜0.01;F=12.722,P＜0.001),senior students' score of open-mindedness was higher than junior students',nursing students' systematicity score increased with grade increasing;regular college course students' maturity of judgment score was higher than special college course students'(t=-3.464,P＜0.01); students who want to be a nurse after graduation had higher open-mindedness score (t=3.019,P＜0.01).2.The score of nursing students' communication ability was3.62±0.37,and among all the factors,supportive communication score＞tutoring and consulting score＞supplying effective negative feedback score(F=28.089,P＜0.001).T tests show that,urban students' supplying effective negative feedback score was higher than rural students'(t=-2.614,P＜0.01);there had been great difference in communication ability score,tutoring and consulting and supportive communication between cadre students and ordinary students(t=2.472,P＜0.05;t=2.693,P＜0.01; t=1.974,P＜0.05);students who love nursing had higher scores in communication ability,supplying effective negative feedback score and supportive communication(t =2.393,P＜0.05;t=1.972,P＜0.05;t=2.557,P＜0.05);from the ANOVA analysis, the author found that there had been significantly difference in communication ability score,tutoring and consulting and supportive communication among different grades (F=2.417,P＜0.05;F=2.404,P＜0.05;F=4.045,P＜0.01),senior students' communication ability score,tutoring and consulting score and supplying effective negative feedback score were higher than junior students'.3.The score of nursing students' perceived self-efficacy was not very good,and it was 2.57±0.44.T tests show that,urban students,only-child students,cadre students had higher perceived self-efficacy score than rural students,multi-child students,ordinary students(t=-3.149,P＜0.01;t=2.118,P＜0.05;F=3.859,P＜0.01). There had been great difference in perceived self-efficacy score among different grades(F=3.859,P＜0.01),and their perceived self-efficacy score increasd with grade increasing.4.Correlation analysis showed that,nursing students' critical thinking had significant positive relationship with communication ability and perceived self-efficacy(r=0.528,P＜0.001;r=0.413,P＜0.001),communication ability had significant positive relationship with perceived self-efficacy(r=0.358,P＜0.001).5.Regression analysis indicated that communication ability and perceived self-efficacy were important predictors to critical thinking(R~2=0.337).Conclusion:1.Nursing students had positive critical thinking.Among all the factors, analyticity was the best,while systematicity was the worst.Urban students' critical thinking ability was better than rural students'.2.Nursing students' communication ability was good.Their supportive communication was the best,while their supplying effective negative feedback was the worst.The communication ability of cadre students,students who love nursing and senior students was better than that of ordinary students,students who donot love nursing and junior students.3.Nursing students' perceived self-efficacy level was not very good.The perceived self-efficacy of urban students,only-children students,cadre students and senior students was better than that of rural students,multi-children students,ordinary students and junior students.4.Nursing students' critical thinking had positive relationship with communication ability and perceived self-efficacy,and their communication ability had positive relationship with perceived self-efficacy.5.Nursing students' communication ability and perceived self-efficacy were important factors to critical thinking.6.Nursing educators can introduce some measures to teaching to enhance nursing students' critical thinking,for example,changing teaching methods, enhancing major interest,improving communication techniques and so on.