Yi-Chuan Chang
Fooyin University, Taiwan
Title: Achievement of promoting critical thinking and professional self-concepts for college-level nursing students in taiwan - taking the “evidence-based nursing†courses as example
Biography
Biography: Yi-Chuan Chang
Abstract
Critical thinking is indispensable for evidence-based practice. Integrating evidence-based practice concepts and methods into the curriculum can increase students' understanding of the course content and enhance the students' self-confidence in the nursing care. The purpose of this study is to introduce the traditional or mixed teaching style into the evidence-based nursing courses to improve the effect of critical thinking and professional self-concept for nursing students. A total of 9 classes, 3 classes were selected by simple random sampling from the two-year college programs at a technological university in southern Taiwan. And 5 master's students participated in research. The mixed teaching type was used for Class 1, the other two classes used traditional teaching style. The achievement evaluation was based on the analysis of the difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of the critical thinking dispositions and the professional self-concept. The groups of both the mixed and traditional teaching type intervention had got lower average scores for critical thinking dispositions in post-test than the pre-test, the mixed group did not reach significant difference (p=.37), the traditional group showed significant decreased (p<.05), but the average scores of neither groups reached significant differences (p=.62). The professional self-concept, the post-test average scores were significantly increased (p< .001), but neither of two groups reached statistically significant difference (p=.61). For the post-course evaluation, most of students' qualitative feedback was that mixed teaching type was very helpful for the study of evidence-based courses and it was a learning experience that had not been used before, which enabled full discussion and sharing in the group. Introducing the traditional or mixed teaching style into evidence-based nursing curriculum can enhance students' confidence in the clinical nursing care.