Critical Thinking Skills of Nursing Students in Lecture-Based Teaching and Case-Based Learning

In today's technologically advanced healthcare world, nursing students should be active learners and think critically to provide safe patient care. A strategy that promotes students' active learning is case-based learning (CBL). The purpose of this study was to examine critical thinking (CT) abilities of nursing students from two different curricular approaches, CBL and didactic teaching. The design used in this research was a comparative descriptive survey. The sample included 103 participants; 65 students from the CBL nursing program and 38 students from the didactic nursing program offered by the MOH Schools of Nursing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Data were collected using the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) Form B to measure the CT abilities of the participants. The data were analyzed using the SPSS. The independent t-test results revealed that the CBL participants performed better in the total CT score and all CT subscales than the didactic program participants.