An evidence-based project for evaluating strategies to improve knowledge acquisition and critical-thinking performance in nursing students

This longitudinal, quasi-experimental study with 142 junior nursing student s focused on measurement of learning outcomes in two areas: acquisition of knowledge and development of critical thinking skills. The variation in cli nical teaching strategy (structured versus unstructured health pattern asse ssment) was the independent variable. Results indicated significant gains i n both knowledge and critical thinking performance from the beginning to th e end of the semester. The significant gains in critical thinking performan ce provides support to the assertion that domain-specific measures of criti cal thinking are needed in nursing education. Additionally our results sugg ested that it was the interaction between learning strategy and the charact eristics of the learner that was more significant in determining knowledge improvement than the particular strategy. As a result of this sudy, it is r ecommended that faculty develop and use an evidence-based model to support their decision making regarding teaching methodologies. This seems especial ly relevant for large, introductory clinical courses that use team teaching to achieve educational goals related to improvement in critical thinking o r knowledge.