Helping nursing students develop critical thinking skills is one of the main criteria for the evaluation of nursing education in Taiwan today. Assessment of critical thinking abilities is necessary for the development and evaluation of nursing curriculum. The purposes of this study were to examine the critical thinking abilities of RN-BSN students upon entering the school and analyze the correlates of these abilities. The participants were 135 first year nursing students of RN-BSN program of a university in southern Taiwan. A self developed instrument “Self Evaluation of Critical Thinking Skills in Nursing Process” was utilized to measure critical thinking abilities. This instrument is a 1-5 Likert scale. It has expert validity. The internal consistency (cronbach’s α) is 0.74.

The results indicate that the average score of the total critical thinking skills upon entering school is 3.72 which was in the middle upper level. The best 3 critical thinking skills were: 1) ability to choose an appropriate model for assessment (M=4.09); 2) ability to assure the accuracy of data collected (M=4.09); 3) ability to use various methods and resources to identify abnormal signs/symptoms (M=4.07). The worst 3 critical thinking skills were: 1) ability to use critical thinking skills to correct nursing care plan (M=3.11); 2) the ability to assure consistency among data from different sources (M=3.13); 3) ability to use critical thinking skills frequently in nursing process (M=3.20). Critical thinking ability was positively correlated with age (t=.185; p<.05). The results of this study indicate the strength and weakness of critical thinking abilities in nursing process for RN-BSN students. The results of this study will help nursing faculty design teaching activities for both classroom and clinical practice.  

Key words: critical thinking ability, nursing student