Efficacy of teaching methods used to develop critical thinking in nursing and midwifery undergraduate students: A systematic review of the literature

摘要

Background: The value and importance of incorporating strategies that promote critical thinking in nursing andmidwifery undergraduate programmes are well documented. However, relatively little is known about theeffectiveness of teaching strategies in promoting CT. Evaluating effectiveness is important to promote ‘bestpractise’ in teaching.Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of teaching methods used to develop critical thinking skills in nursing andmidwifery undergraduate students.Data Sources: The following six databases; CINAHL, Ovid Medline, ERIC, Informit, PsycINFO and Scopus weresearched and resulted in the retrieval of 1315 papers.Review Methods: After screening for inclusion, each paper was evaluated using the Critical Appraisal SkillsProgramme tool. Twenty-eight studies met the inclusion criteria and quality appraisal.Results: Twelve different teaching interventions were tested in 8 countries. Results varied, with little consistencyacross studies using the same type of intervention or outcome tool. Sixteen tools were used to measure the effi-cacy of teaching in developing critical thinking. Seventeen studies identified a significant increase in criticalthinking, while nine studies found no increases, and two found unexplained decreases in CT when using a similareducational intervention.Conclusions: Whilst this review aimed to identify effective teaching strategies that promote and develop criticalthinking, flaws in methodology and outcome measures contributed to inconsistent findings. The continued use ofgeneralised CT tools is unlikely to help identify appropriate teaching methods that will improve CT abilities ofmidwifery and nursing students and prepare them for practise. The review was limited to empirical studies publishedin English that used measures of critical thinking with midwifery and nursing students. Discipline specificstrategies and tools that measure students' abilities to apply CT in practise are needed.