Critical-thinking ability in respiratory care students and its correlation with age, educational background, and performance on national board examinations.
BACKGROUND
Critical thinking is an important characteristic to develop in respiratory care students.


METHODS
We used the short-form Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal instrument to measure critical-thinking ability in 55 senior respiratory care students in a baccalaureate respiratory care program. We calculated the Pearson correlation coefficient to assess the relationships between critical-thinking score, age, and student performance on the clinical-simulation component of the national respiratory care boards examination. We used chi-square analysis to assess the association between critical-thinking score and educational background.


RESULTS
There was no significant relationship between critical-thinking score and age, or between critical-thinking score and student performance on the clinical-simulation component. There was a significant (P = .04) positive association between a strong science-course background and critical-thinking score, which might be useful in predicting a student's ability to perform in areas where critical thinking is of paramount importance, such as clinical competencies, and to guide candidate-selection for respiratory care programs.
Department of Respiratory Care, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas, USA. wettstein@uthscsa.edu
Richard B
RB
Wettstein
Robert L
RL
Wilkins
Donna D
DD
Gardner
Ruben D
RD
Restrepo
D000328:Adult; D001076:Aptitude / Q000502:physiology*; D002568:Certification; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012138:Respiratory Therapy / Q000193:education*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult