Abstract:

Introduction:
Critical thinking is defined as rational and reflective thinking (Facione, 1990). Critical thinking skills, namely, interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation and self-regulation (Facione, 1990), are essential for quality in nursing care (Carvalho et al., 2017), as they enable reflective thinking, skills for problem solving (Boso et al., 2021) and decision making (Hundial, 2020). Clinical practice is an excellent opportunity for the development of critical thinking skills, as it requires students to mobilize and associate theoretical knowledge with nursing care (Abreu, 2007; Peixoto & Peixoto, 2017). This study aims to evaluate the nursing students’ critical thinking in their clinical practice.

Method:
A descriptive quantitative study was developed. To carry out the study, the “Critical Thinking Questionnaire for Students and Health Professionals_Version 2” (Amorim & Silva, 2014) is used. Due to the pandemic context caused by COVID-19, we decided to use the Google Forms application to collect data. Participants are undergraduate nursing students. Inclusion criteria were: having registration in the year 2020/2021 and having, at least, one experience in clinical practice. Participated in the study 114 students, mostly female (89.5%), with a mean age of 21 years, ranging from 19 to 38 years old. Data collection took place from May 31 to June 25, 2021. For data analysis we use descriptive and inferential statistics through the SPSS Statistics Software version 27.

Results and discussion:
To verify the psychometric qualities of the instrument, the reliability analysis was carried out using Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient, which resulted in 0.732, and the validity analysis was carried out through the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Index (KMO) which stood at 0.518. The analysis of the results shows 86.8% of the participants obtained high scores when compared to the total value of the scale, which means that the sample has a high level of critical thinking skills. Regarding critical thinking skills, participants obtained scores compatible with a high demonstration in interpretation, analysis and evaluation skills. However, they had lower scores in inference and explanation, with only 13.1% of participants showing scores compatible with a high demonstration of this competence. Strategies used in clinical practice should facilitate the development of critical thinking skills, especially inference.

Conclusion:
This study demonstrates the need to establish strategies in clinical practice that facilitate the development of critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is the pillar that supports safe health care, so it is imperative to teach the student to think, formulate hypotheses and propose solutions adapted to each situation (Pretorius et al., 2016). Further studies are recommended to prove the relationship between the strategies used in clinical practice and critical thinking skills.

Keywords:

Thinking, Nursing Students, Nursing Care.