Health Scientists' Doctoral Journey: A Blueprint for Promoting Critical Thinking Skills

To advance evidence-based person-centered care, health professionals must see themselves as health scientists who possess the skills to administer healthcare and advance scholarship supporting healthcare practices. However, formal and objective assessment of critical thinking development along the doctoral journey is limited. This project sought to evaluate critical thinking development along a health science (HS) doctoral program using the Health Science Reasoning Test (HSRT). A cross-sectional study design was employed during Phase 1, for a snapshot of current students' critical thinking skills. All PhD in HS students at all points in their doctoral program in the University were invited to anonymously complete the HSRT survey. Total HSRT scores from 27 students were reviewed in relation to achieved program competencies to identify potential trends in the data. Administering the HSRT during that period enabled the researchers to link the HSRT scores to a specific point in the program and thus to assess the level of critical thinking at key points in the program. Phase 1 of this project supports the idea that academic programs can identify critical thinking skills of health sciences doctoral students and assess the doctoral journey success in meeting its mission to promote development of critical thinking using the HSRT. Based upon the study's findings, a blueprint is proposed for health science doctoral education to measure critical thinking development.