Comparison of Clinical Thinking Ability in Nursing Students of Different Grades

Objective： This study investigated and compared the clinical thinking ability of undergraduate nursing students of different grades, and searched for influencing factors of clinical thinking ability of nursing undergraduate students. Methods： The convenience sampling method was used to select the Subject of the study. In total, 180 third-year, fourth-year, and fifth-year nursing undergraduate students were enrolled in this study. A self-designed scale of clinical thinking ability was used to collect the data. SPSS17.0 was used to analyze the data. Results： The average scores of clinical thinking ability of undergraduate nursing students were 68.14±9.13. In addition, 71.1% of the students have a higher level of clinical thinking ability, and only 7.2% of the students have the best level. The ANOVA test showed that the fourth-year students had the highest scores（72.96±8.64）, and the third-year students had the lowest scores（62.35±8.09）, which indicated a significant difference in the scores of the three groups（ F= 26. 79, P〈0.05）. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that the frequency of academic activities and the frequency of department rounds were significantly correlated to clinical thinking ability（P〈0.05）. Conclusion： We must pay attention to the changes and influencing factors of clinical thinking ability of nursing undergraduate students. Thus, traditional teaching methods need to evolve and be revised to host the capacity of clinical practice most effectively and, eventually, promote the development of clinical thinking ability of nursing undergraduate students.