The development of critical thinking in nursing education: an experimental study

Abstract

Aim: To compare the critical thinking levels developed during clinical nursing education through an educational intervention with the help of concept maps. Method: an experimental, randomized, double-blind study with a “before-after” design, with regard to students of undergraduate courses in nursing from a public higher education institution. The project was submitted to the National Health Council for ethical consideration as Resolution no. 466/12 and was approved with opinion No. 752.501 01.08.2014. Data will be collected with the use of the California Critical Thinking Skills Test instrument and a socioeconomic questionnaire relating to a specific educational intervention. To verify the normality/symmetry of the figures, the Shapiro-Wilk test will be applied; for the data analysis, the Student T test will be used for a comparison of means, and Pearson's chi-square test will be used to verify the association between variables with a 95% reliability interval