Research On Critical Thinking,Decision-Making Style And Study Engagement For Clinical Medicine Undergraduates

Objective: For decades,the importance of developing critical thinking skills has been emphasized in medical education.As listed by the World Federation for Medical Education,critical thinking should be part of the training standards for medical students and practitioners.Critical thinking is essential for medical students and professionals to be able to evaluate,diagnose and treat patients effectively.One major criticism of medical education is the gap that exists between what students learn in the classroom setting and what they experience in clinical practice.Only a few students will analyze and employ critical thinking when they acquire knowledge during their education.Therefore,critical thinking has become increasingly necessary for medical students and professionals.Critical thinking disposition helps medical students and professionals overcome the effects of personal values and beliefs when exercising clinical judgment.The lack of effective instruments to measure critical thinking disposition in medical students has become an obstacle for training and evaluating students in undergraduate programs in China.The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the CTDA test.The CTDA was revised by our research team.Currently,no studies have used the questionnaire in health professionals of China.Therefore,the psychometric properties of the CTDA have not yet been assessed.The purpose of the research was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the CTDA among Chinese medical students.This study of the part two seeks to explore preservice medical students' critical thinking dispositions in terms of certain social demographic factors and education-related factors,including family factors,social factors,self-regulated learning,professional recognition factors,and etc.The study displayed the related influencing factors of critical thinking,student engagement and decision-making style of medical students,and explored the relationship in critical thinking,student engagement and decision-making style of medical students.Methods: For the present study,325 medical students from five academic years were recruited,and the research was conducted between March 2019 and June 2019 in a medical university of China.All participants completed the self-administered questionnaire individually.It mainly includes basic information of medical students,the GDMS,the UWES-S and the CTDA.Internal consistency test and confirmatory factor analysis were utilized.The demographic characteristics of residents were analysised by descriptive statistics.Single factor analysis and multifactor analysis was used to test the variety of influence factors of critical thinking of medical students.Results: Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the entire questionnaire was calculated to be0.92,all of the domains showed acceptable internal consistency(0.81-0.86),and the test-retest reliability indicated acceptable intra-class correlation coefficients(ICCs)(0.93,P<0.01).Moreover,the results of the confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the construct validity of the CTDA was satisfactory.The questionnaire showed satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity.The CTDA demonstrated good psychometric characteristics and is a reliable and valid questionnaire to measure Chinese medical students' ability of critical thinking.Thus,the CTDA could be applied in critical thinking training programs and medical education research.This study reveal that age,father's and mother's education level,the frequency of joining the club weekly,the frequency of exercise weekly,the satisfaction of social communication,academic year,students' leader,passed all subjects in this semester,self-learning ability,self-learning hours weekly,the frequency of academic discussion,often asking questions during the study,facing problems to believe whom,the ability of information retrieval,can find the needed document,the interest of scientific research,you choose your major and your attitude to your major during the study are the influence factors of the CTDA total score(P<0.05).Meanwhile,this research data on multiple factors analysis shown that age,academic year,father's education level,the satisfaction of social communication,the frequency of exercise weekly,facing problems to believe whom and often asking questions during the study are the influence factors of the CTDA total score(P<0.05).The rational decision-making style and the intuitional decision-making style play positive role on critical thinking and its three dimensions of the CTDA.Study engagement plays partial intermediary role in the relationship of decision-making style and critical thinking and its three dimensions of the CTDA.Conclusion: The results of our research showed that the Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the CTDA was good.The CTDA reported good test-retest reliability.Meanwhile,the construct validity of the questionnaire was satisfactory.The CTDA shown acceptable concurrent validity,and the convergent and discriminant validity of the questionnaire were satisfactory.The rational decision-making style plays positive role on critical thinking and its three dimensions of the CTDA.Study engagement plays partial intermediary role in the relationship of decision-making style and critical thinking and its three dimensions of the CTDA.Management departments should give medical students more organization support,thus increasing the individual organizational commitment of medical students,improving critical thinking competence of health professionals,enhancing the patient safety of hospital,and promoting the sustainable development of health service.