Critical Thinking Ability among Senior Nursing Students Faculty of Nursing, Prince of Songkla University

Abstract

This descriptive study aimed to describe the level of critical thinking ability among senior nursing students, Faculty of Nursing, Prince of Songkla University. The sample consisted of 102 senior nursing students studying in academic year 2008 at Faculty of Nursing, Prince of Songkla University. The data were collected by a questionnaire, including demographic data and a critical thinking assessment questionnaire. Reliability of the critical thinking assessment questionnaire was determined by Kuder – Richardson method, and the result was 0.73. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation.

The result of the study revealed that most of participants had critical thinking ability at a moderate level and a mean score at 22.78 (S.D. = 4.70). In addition, when the critical thinking ability was classified into 7 elements, the hypothesis ability had the highest mean score at 4.29 (S.D. = 1.22); while, the evaluation ability had the lowest mean score at 2.26 (S.D. = 1.24).

These data indicated that teaching techniques and continuing evaluation of critical thinking ability among nursing students are needed to be improved.