Abstract

This presentation involves a non-experimental pre-test/post-test design with educational intervention to augment nurses’ critical thinking skills in an extended care facility in the United States. The educational intervention consisted of six one-hour sessions (one taught each month) based upon a critical thinking overview and one session each month originating from the ADPIE nursing process. The host facility had a high ethnicity ratio of 66.7% multi-national heritage to Caucasian nurses. It was anticipated that statistical findings from the study among three ethnic groups might better enable nurse educators to develop future educational programs suited to different ethnic cultures via 2 research questions exploring critical thinking comprehension between RNs and LPNs as well as among the 3 ethnic groups tested. Findings revealed a significant difference on readiness in implementation of critical thinking dispositions between RNs and LPNs with RNs apparently more ready to implement decision making, a hallmark of critical thinking. Statistical findings did not indicate a higher level of critical thinking skill following the 6 month course, nor better critical thinking comprehension by any of the ethnic groups tested.