Assessment of Critical Thinking Skills in Emergency Nurses: An Analytical Cross-sectionalStudy

Introduction: Critical thinking has been recognized as a fundamental skill in the field of nursing, which nursesshould utilize in their work environment. Critical thinking involves analyzing, evaluating, and interpretinginformation and is used in various areas such as disease diagnosis, treatment planning and implementation,monitoring and evaluating outcomes, problem-solving, and decision-making in emergency situations. Thisstudy aimed to examine the critical thinking skills among Iranian emergency nurses.Methods: This study was a cross-sectional descriptive research conducted in accordance with the STROBEguidelines in Ardabil province (northwestern Iran). Data collection was done using convenience sampling at thenursing faculties of three medical universities: Ardabil, Meshgin, and Germi. A sample of ۲۱۶ emergency nursesparticipated in the study. A demographic information form and the Nursing Clinical Critical ThinkingQuestionnaire were used to collect data. The data were analyzed using SPSS software version ۲۶.Results: The results of the study showed that the mean total score of participants' clinical critical thinking was۱۲۷.۸۰ ± ۱۳.۸۷. Based on this, most participants reported a low level (۶۳%) or moderate level (۳۷%) of clinicalcritical thinking. The highest and lowest mean scores were related to the cognitive dimension (۱۳۵.۹۹ ± ۱۲.۳۰)and technical dimension (۱۷.۲۵ ± ۳.۸۳), respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that workexperience and marital status were predictors of clinical critical thinking among nursing students. Overall, theselected predictors accounted for ۲۸.۳% of the total variance in clinical critical thinking (F = ۸.۱۸۷, p < ۰.۰۰۱).Conclusion: Based on the study results, it was evident that none of the participants were able to achieve highscores in critical thinking skills. This is due to the focus on content rather than clinical critical thinking skills intask-oriented nursing and healthcare education programs. Considering the significant changes in clinical nursingenvironments, improving clinical critical thinking can enhance the performance of nurses.

کلیدواژه ها:

critical thinking ، nursing ، intensive care