[ survey on barriers to access health information resources of nursing care from the perspectives of nurses and nursing students]

Access to trustworthy health information is one of the most important factors in nursing care. It is important that the nurses be assured of both importance and quality of information resources to access reliable health information. This study was conducted to assess different methods nurses and nursing students apply to access information resources and to assess the inhibiting factors in this respect. This descriptive and analytical study was conducted among 412 nurses and nursing students in hospitals affiliated to Semnan University of Medical Sciences and Social Security Organization of Semnan in 2011. A valid and reliable questionnaire was used for collecting data which were then analyzed by frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal - Wallis tests and Chi-Square. The nurses appeared to have greater tendency than nursing students to use their colleagues' and patients' information. They showed less tendency to use information of printed textbooks in clinical decision making. There was a significant difference between demographic profile of the participants and the use of different information resources [p <0.01]. Moreover, there was a significant difference between nurses and nursing students in using different information resources and the inhibiting factors reported [P <0.01]. The results indicate that nurses and nursing students are more inclined to use traditional information resources such as the information given by patients, relatives or personnel. This might be due to different reasons one of which might be lack of skills to use hospital libraries. The findings suggest that health information literacy is a major challenge in the nursing community, and information system professionals can undoubtedly facilitate the use of quality information in this regard

Comparison of critical thinking skills in nursing students of semnan and Tehran Universities of Medical Sciences

Today, the promotion of critical thinking skills should be considered as an expected outcome of BSc nursing curriculum. This study was designed to compare the critical thinking skills of nursing students of Semnan University of Medical Sciences with Tehran University of Medical Sciences. In this comparative and descriptive study, 70 and 120 of Yl and Y4 BSc nursing students of Semnan and Tehran Universities [Tehran, Iran and Shaheed Beheshti Universities] were selected respectively using stratified random sampling. The California Critical Thinking Skill Test, form B [CCTST:FB] composed of 34 multiple choice questions was used to assess the critical thinking skills in five areas of analysis, evaluation, inference, inductive and deductive reasoning. Data was then analyzed using t-test and ANOVA. The results showed that the mean and standard deviation of critical thinking scores for semnan and Tehran bachelor students were 12.34 +/- 2.45 and 10.4 +/- 2.75, respectively which were significantly different [t=1.95, p=0.002]. There was a significant difference between critical thinking skills scores of nursing students in different years of study in Semnan [F3, 0=4.28, p= 0.000], But in Tehran Universities, there was only a significant difference between critical thinking skills scores of Yl and Y4 students [t=-2.77, p=0.007]. Bachelor nursing students of Semnan University had a higher score of critical thinking skills compared to their counterparts in Tehran. There was also a significant difference between junior and senior nursing students. Results from this study and of similar works suggest that more attention should be paid to the process of education based on nurturing of critical thinking skills

Evaluation of critical thinking skills in Isfahan university of medical sciences' students and its relationship with their rank in university entrance exam rank

Are the education students receive prior to entering the university, based on critical thinking skills? Are their scientific abilities associated with this thinking style? This study was designed with the aim of evaluating critical thinking skills and its relationship with the achieved rank in university entrance exam in the students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. In a descriptive study, critical thinking skills of 89 randomly selected students who entered Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in the academic year of 2006-2007, and were spending their first semester was evaluated. Data was gathered using California standard test of critical thinking skills [form B] which was run officially. The attained scores were regarded as students' critical thinking skills criteria and were investigated considering its relationship with the students rank in university entrance exam. The data was analyzed by SPSS software using t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient. The mean and standard deviation of students' scores in critical thinking skills was 12.48 +/- 3.23 There was no significant relationship between the rank in university entrance exam and the total score of critical thinking. Among domains of critical thinking, there was just a significant relationship between the domain of inference and student's rank in the university entrance exam, with a relatively low correlation. In two groups of doctorate [professional doctorate] and bachelor students, only in doctorate students and in the domain of deductive reasoning, there was a significant correlation between university entrance exam rank and critical thinking scores. It seems that students' critical thinking scores at the time of their entrance to the university are not so desirable and their rank in the university entrance exam is not related to these skills. Therefore, it is necessary to consider teaching and promoting critical thinking skills in the university educational planning