Compression the Effect of Clinical Concept Mapping & Nursing Process in Developing Nursing Students’ Critical Thinking Skills

Introduction: Development of critical thinking and clinical education has remained a serious and considerable challenge throughout the nursing educational system in Iran. Education experts believe that effective teaching methods such as concept mapping and nursing process are practical strategies for critical development. Thus, this study was carried out to compare the effectiveness of clinical concept mapping and nursing process in developing critical thinking skills among nursing students. Methods: This is a clinical trial. 41 nursing students who studied in 4th semester at Isfahan University of medical sciences were randomly divided in nursing process, and clinical concept mapping groups. They were asked to prepare a concept map or nursing process for their patient weekly. They were filled The California Critical Thinking Skills (form B) in the first and last day of their course as well as 1 month after study. Data analysis was done using t-test and ANOVA. Results: The results indicated that the students within the clinical concept-mapping group had not developed in any of the 5-fold critical thinking skills. There was no significant difference between their scores (in the first and last day of their course as well as 1 month after study). On the contrary, the results showed that the students’ critical thinking skill in the nursing process group had developed in inference and inductive thinking throughout the study. In 1 month after study, there was a significant difference between the mean score of this group’s critical thinking skills. In the two groups, in each point of study, the total mean of critical thinking scores were not statistically significant. Conclusion: Even though it is impossible to draw a definite conclusion due to sample size and time limitation, the present evidence indicated that nursing process could be more effective in critical thinking development. Further research with more time can be useful for evidence-based decision-making.