Comparison of critical thinking skills between continuous licentiate and bachelor- licentiate nursing students of Abadan nursing faculty in 2008

Introduction: Critical thinking skills as thinking and judging self-regulation are purposeful and result in solving problems and making appropriate decisions. Therefore, the importance of this subject and its role in the nursing profession and the clinical decision, this study was done to compare critical thinking skills of nursing students in continuous licentiate and bachelor- licentiate admissions.

Methods: This study was the analytical method that all continuous and discontinuous nursing students(70) were assessed using a standard questionnaire form Watson and Glaser. Data were analyzed using statistical software SPSS.13.00.

Results: The results showed that the difference between the scores of critical thinking skills among continuous licentiate (42.29) and bachelor- licentiate (49) nursing students were statistically significant (P-value < 0.001). With an increase in semesters, there was increase in students critical thinking skills score consistently, but not statistically significant (P-value = 0.6). Between the average and marital status with critical thinking skills, no statistically significant relationship was found.

Conclusion: Poor scores in critical thinking of nursing students in this study and other studies represent the need to review teacher’s clinical teaching methods, evaluation and how to delegate tasks to the student. According to study results, the need to review how to spend course and select of clinical educators for these courses seem evident.