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Validation and Utility of the Refined Critical Thinking Self-Assessment Scale
Kevin A Kupzyk1, Teresa Barry Hultquist2, Lynnette Leeseberg Stamler2
1College of Nursing, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA kevin.kupzyk@unmc.edu.
Journal of Nursing Measurement
|December 10, 2025
Summary
The Critical Thinking Self-Assessment Scale (CTSAS) is a valid and reliable tool for assessing nursing students' critical thinking skills. This validated scale can help educators evaluate and enhance essential patient care competencies.
Area of Science:
- Nursing Education
- Healthcare Professional Development
- Cognitive Skills Assessment
Background:
- Critical thinking is essential for practice-ready nurses and effective patient care.
- The Critical Thinking Self-Assessment Scale (CTSAS) assesses 16 subskills across 6 themes.
- Previous versions of the CTSAS were reduced from 115 to 46 items.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the structure, reliability, validity, and clinical utility of the current 46-item CTSAS.
- To confirm the psychometric properties of the CTSAS in undergraduate nursing students.
- To assess the CTSAS's suitability for use in nursing education.
Main Methods:
- Confirmatory factor analysis was employed.
- Reliability statistics were calculated.
- Convergent validity was assessed using the Need for Cognition Scale.
Main Results:
- The CTSAS demonstrated good reliability.
- The scale exhibited favorable structural validity.
- Convergent validity was successfully established.
Conclusions:
- The CTSAS is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring critical thinking in nursing students.
- Nursing faculty can utilize the CTSAS to evaluate and improve student critical thinking.
- The findings support the clinical utility of the CTSAS in nursing education programs.
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