Abstract

The purpose of this research is to study the impact of the critical thinking component in the health education curriculum of nurses for patients with different health needs. Data for this research was gathered from mixed approaches, quantitative and qualitative approaches. For the quantitative approach 84 student nurses were selected randomly to represent the experiment and control groups in a private medical college in Northern part of Pennisular Malaysia. The 2 groups of students had been exposed to health education and clinical training in the wards as determined by the nursing curriculum. Following that, a treatment in the form of a critical thinking module which consisted of critical thinking related activities, was only given to the experiment group. Following the quantitative session, the qualitative approach was used. In this session, 5 student nurses were selected randomly and they were interviewed for 2 times, the first session was after the treatment was given and the second session was after clinical training with the patients. Besides these interviews, the patients concerned were also interviewed Findings from t-test and ANCOVA showed significant difference in the achievement between the experiment and control groups. In other words, these findings showed that there was a significant impact of the critical thinking component in the health education curriculum of nurses. Qualitative data findings showed that the respondents demonstrated thinking skills during their clinical training. Their patients too voiced individual views and perceptions. The students also felt that their thinking had improved after their induction to the critical thinking module.

Key words: Critical Thinking. Curriculum. Nurses. Health Education. Patients. Decision-making