The Effect of Reflection on Critical Thinking Skills of Nursing Students in Tabriz Medical University

Introduction. The significance of fostering critical thinking in students has been explicated by the increasing rate of knowledge and information. To assimilate knowledge and to assess the considerable amount of information, students need to develop their thinking skills. Considering reflection as a teaching strategy and one of the most effective ways for fostering thinking, this study was designed to determine the effect of reflection on thinking skills of nursing students at Tabriz faculty of nursing and midwifery. Methods. 40 senior nursing students participated in this study voluntarily. After receiving the necessary information regarding their participation they took California Critical Thinking Skill Test. Then they were divided into 2 equal case and control groups. Both groups had their routine clinical programs, but the interventional program was offered only to the case group. This interventional program consisted of 3 main parts: A 4 day workshop on reflection and 10 weeks reflection on their clinical experiences, concluding dialog journals and writing up logs. At the end of their clinical program, both groups took the same test as pretest. Data were analyzed by paired T-test and T-test. Results: Results of the study revealed that reflection has been effective on improving inductive reasoning and total scores of critical thinking skills of students. Conclusion: Improving general critical thinking skills due to a disciplinary specific strategy was a valuable outcome. Regarding this results, reflection is recommended to be infused in our educational program.