Assessment of Nursing Educators' Opinions, Knowledge and Teaching Methods regarding Encouragement Student's Critical Thinking

Abstract

Background: Critical thinking has long been considered an important part of nursing education. Nursing graduates must have critical thinking skills in addition to a basic knowledge of nursing and the sciences to make the necessary clinical judgments. The development of these skills requires different teaching and learning strategies. Aim: the aim of this study is to assess nursing educators' opinions, knowledge and teaching methods regarding encouragement students' critical thinking. Research Design: the study was conducted using descriptive research design. Setting: The study was carried out at Faculty of Nursing, Minia University. Subject: The study subjects consisted 75% (n= 80) of clinical instructors, assistant lecturers and lectures at the Faculty of Nursing, Minia University. Tool: One tool was used in this study the critical thinking tool for nurse educators. Results: reveals that, the majority of the sample had moderate score of knowledge about critical thinking ranged from 88.5% to 100%. Conclusions: the majority of the sample had moderate score of knowledge about critical thinking, the highest mean scores of nurse educators' regarding use each method in clinical teaching was written nursing care plan , also the highest mean scores of nurse educators' regarding use each method in clinical didactic and methods that enhance student ability to think critically was small group discussions Recommendations: nurse educators must try new teaching approaches that are most effective in promoting critical thinking skills among student, and nursing curriculum should be revised to include critical thinking skills into nursing curriculum.