Critical thinking skills and clinical decision making in nursing and midwifery students: A case study of Masvingo provincial hospital in 2014 in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Objective (s): To establish the level of critical thinking skills of student nurses and student midwives at Masvingo Provincial Hospital in Zimbabwe. Materials and Methods: A descriptive correlation quantitative research was employed as the design. Stratified and convenience sampling method was used to recruit 125 study participants. Questionnaires were used to collect data. A Pearson’s correlation coefficient matrix was used to explore the relationship between critical thinking and clinical decision-making. The Holistic Critical Thinking Scoring Rubric was used to rate responses to the case-study based questionnaire. Analysis of data was conducted using SPSS-20 software. Results: Results showed a positive significant relationship between critical thinking and clinical decision-making (r = 0.207, p = < .01) r= 0.207 implies that as critical thinking increase clinical decision-making marginally improves and (p = < .01) explains 10% variance in Critical Thinking and Clinical Decision-Making. (F= 5.501) implies that the linear relationship between critical thinking and clinical decision-making is significant. R² = 0.035, the co-efficient of determinant 0.035 implies that critical thinking is responsible for 3-5% of changes in clinical decision-making. s=0.207 implies that when critical thinking changes by one unit clinical decision-making improves by 0-20 times. The findings of the study indicated that if student nurses and student midwives are given knowledge of critical thinking skills their clinical decision-making would improve by 3-5%. This shows that there are other factors determining critical thinking skills which should be identified and addressed. Conclusion: Utilisation of teaching methodologies that instill critical thinking skills in schools of nursing and midwifery may improve critical thinking in student nurses/midwives.