A Design for and Evaluation of a Critical Thinking Class for New Community Health Practitioners / 한국간호교육학회지

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: This study was carried out to describe the process and evaluation of a critical thinking class for new community health practitioners. METHODS: The case study design was used to develop and evaluate a critical thinking class for 46 participants in the community health practitioners training program. The class was held two hours a week for 8 weeks. Critical thinking disposition was tested before and after the class and critical skill was graded according to the final test score. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and paired t-tests using SPSS WIN 20.0. RESULTS: Clinical critical thinking competences were identified through the literature review. The case situations with questions guiding the problem-solving process were developed and used for group discussion. Critical thinking disposition of participants was determined to have increased slightly after having taken the class. 17.4% of the participants had a competency level high enough to solve a problem and half of them stayed at the level of understanding of critical thinking. Compared with the class's satisfaction with the relevance to their jobs, the satisfaction with the learning method and instructor was high. CONCLUSION: The findings of this research will serve as the basis for developing critical thinking classes for community health nurses in order to improve their critical thinking competence.