Critical thinking skills among Healthcare Management college students: a case study in Iran: a study conducted in 2016

Introduction: One of the essential skills which helps healthcare management students succeed in leadership is development of critical thinking skills during their education. Our study objective was to assess critical thinking skills among healthcare management students of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in 2016. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted among 90 healthcare management students in two bachelor and master&rsquo; degree studying in health faculty of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in 2016. To gather data, a standard questionnaire &ldquo;California Critical Thinking Skill Test (CCTST)&rdquo; was used and data were analyzed by SPSS 16 through descriptive and analytical statistical tests Results: Mean scores of critical thinking skill and its different dimensions were in a moderate level indicating its satisfactory condition among participants. Results of correlation test among study variables only confirmed a significant statistical relation between evaluation aspect and education degree (p<0.05). Moreover a direct significant correlation was recognized between the score of critical thinking skill and its related dimensions (p<0.05). Conclusion: Findings revealed that total score of students&rsquo; critical thinking skills was within the norm range; but their weakness in some aspects highlighted the importance of constant development of such skills among healthcare management students to help them better succeed in leadership tasks Keywords: Critical thinking, skill, student, evaluation