Examination of Clinical Internship Impact on Critical Thinking Utilizing the Health Science Reasoning Test

Abstract

Abstract Introduction The Health Science Reasoning Test (HSRT) is a validated instrument to assess critical thinking skills and is specifically calibrated for trainees in undergraduate and graduate health science educational programs. The objective of this study was to examine the association of scores on the HSRT with clinical internship education in laboratory science students. Methods In March 2019, assessment of clinical reasoning skills by the HSRT was administered to 29 laboratory science students in the following programs: medical laboratory science and cytotechnology. As this was a pretest/posttest design, the HSRT was also administered after the completion of a 5-week clinical internship. Results Significant positive correlations were found between clinical internship education and HSRT scores. Changes in the HSRT scores occurred in overall scores and in the subdomains of deduction, evaluation, and inference after the students completed the 5-week clinical internship. Conclusion Clinical internships are an opportunity for students to develop critical thinking by participating in higher levels of learning objectives, including application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. However, the impact of clinical internships on critical thinking is unknown, and this study has shown a significant improvement in HSRT scores following student participation in a 5-week clinical internship. The HSRT was useful in measuring the association and impact of clinical internship education and critical thinking. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude clinical internships are valuable educational experiences fostering critical thinking in laboratory science students.