Exploring critical thinking in critical care nursing education: a pilot study

BACKGROUND: Critical care nurses process vast amounts of information and require well developed critical-thinking skills to make clinical decisions. METHOD: Using a pretest posttest design, the critical-thinking skills of 31 postgraduate nurses were evaluated using the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST). RESULTS: For the total group, mean critical-thinking scores improved slightly over time. The CCTST revealed a mean pretest score of 18.5 and a mean posttest score of 19.7, both of which were higher than the established norms for the test. Overall, no significant difference was observed between pretest and posttest. However, statistical significance was observed posttest for nurses whose critical-thinking scores improved (p < .000). CONCLUSION: Despite the small sample, the majority of the postgraduate nurses improved their critical-thinking skills during the course of their study.