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Critical thinking skills of basic baccalaureate and Accelerated second-degree nursing students
1Oakland University School of Nursing, Rochester, Michigan, USA. newton@oakland.edu
Aim:
The purpose of this study was to describe the critical thinking (CT) skills of basic baccalaureate (basic-BSN) and accelerated second-degree (ASD) nursing students at nursing program entry.
Background:
Many authors propose that CT in nursing should be viewed as a developmental process that increases as students' experiences with it change. However, there is a dearth of literature that describes basic-BSN and ASD students' CT skills from an evolutionary perspective.
Method:
The study design was exploratory descriptive.
Results:
The results indicated thatASD students had higher CT scores on a quantitative critical thinking assessment at program entry than basic-BSN students.
Conclusion:
CT data are needed across the nursing curriculum from basic-BSN and ASD students in order for nurse educators to develop cohort-specific pedagogical approaches that facilitate critical thinking in nursing and produce nurses with good CT skills for the future.
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