The effect of problem-based learning clinical education on nursing student's critical thinking

Problem-based clinical education is an effective strategy for enhancing creativity, group work, leadership and problem-solving skills in nursing students. It seems PBL can improve nursing students’ critical thinking skills. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of problem-based clinical education on nursing students’ critical thinking.
This randomized controlled trial was conducted in Kashan University of Medical Science in 2015. In total, 36 nursing students were recruited and were allocated to either the conventional or the problem-based clinical education. A demographic questionnaire and the California Critical Thinking Skills Test, Form B, were used for data collection. Students’ critical thinking skills were assessed both at the beginning of their clinical course and one week after it. The SPSS software was employed for performing the independent- and the paired-samples t as well as the Mann-Whitney U tests.
The mean of students’ critical thinking score in the conventional clinical education group increased significantly from 10.94±1.85 to 11.88±1.86 (P=0.016). In the problem-based education group, the mean of critical thinking score also increased from 10.72±1.44 to 13.33±1.67 (P=0.0004). Before the study, the groups did not differ significantly regarding the scores of critical thinking. However, the posttest value of critical thinking score in the problem-based education group was significantly higher than the score in the conventional education group.
Both conventional and problem-based clinical educations significantly improved nursing students’ critical thinking. However, the problem-based clinical education strategy was more effective than the conventional one.