The impact of humanities-based teaching and learning strategies on critical thinking and clinical reasoning development among BSN students.

摘要

The ability to function effectively in a dynamic, culturally diverse healthcare environment requires both critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN, 2008) recognizes the importance of humanities in the baccalaureate nursing curriculum. This quasi-experimental, nonrandomized pretest-posttest study examined the impact of humanities-based teaching/learning strategies on the development of critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills among BSN students enrolled in a maternal/newborn nursing course. The humanities-based teaching/learning strategies included the analysis of a poem, three paintings, and a short story. Participants completed the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) to assess differences in critical thinking (Insight Assessment, 2015). The Self-Assessment of Clinical Reflection and Reasoning tool (SACRR) was used to assess changes in clinical reasoning (Royeen, Mu, Barrett, & Lubben, 2000). Both the Watson's theory of caring (Watson, 2008) and transformational learning (Cranton, 2006) philosophical underpinnings were used to develop the framework, to implement the educational interventions, and to interpret the results of the study. Results indicated that the humanities-based teaching/learning strategies did significantly impact the development of clinical reasoning skills (p < .05). However, post-intervention assessment of critical thinking skills indicated there were not significant changes in students when they were exposed to the humanities-based strategy.