Exploring the Critical Thinking Skills of Respiratory Care Students and Faculty

Abstract

Background: Critical thinking is an essential skill for respiratory therapists to provide competent patient care. However, limited evidence of respiratory care students' critical thinking levels and no empirical evidence assessing that of respiratory care faculty exists. This study aims to assess the overall critical thinking levels of respiratory care students and faculty, determine whether faculty have stronger overall critical thinking skills than students, and investigate students' and faculty's perceptions regarding what critical thinking is and how it develops. Methods: An E-mail invitation was sent to all accredited US respiratory care education program directors asking for their participation and forwarding the solicitation letter to students and faculty. Participants completed a two-section online survey first requesting demographic information and presenting three open-ended questions and then providing the health sciences reasoning test (HSRT) to assess participants' critical thinking. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and one-tailed independent t-test (P