Abstract:

Hospitals have high expectations for new nursing graduates. Nurse educators are facing greater pressure to prepare nursing graduates who are able to think critically and solve problems in a variety of clinical settings. This shift in nursing education requires that active teaching strategies be implemented to promote active learning versus rote memorization. One example of an active learning strategy is concept mapping. Concept mapping is not a new idea various disciplines of science, engineering, marketing and business have used mind maps to portray the relationship between concepts. However, there is little empirical evidence on the effectiveness of concept mapping in nursing education.
The purpose of this quasi-experimental pilot study is to research the effectiveness of concept maps in developing critical thinking skills of students enrolled in an accelerated Bachelor of Science nursing program. Research addressed the question: Are there differences in a nursing student’s critical thinking skills after the implementation of classroom- based teaching of concept mapping?
The study used a one group, pretest posttest design. Subjects for the study were obtained from the accessible population of nursing students enrolled in an accelerated Bachelor of Sciences school of nursing in the southwest United States. The nursing students in the accelerated program are required to complete the standardized Assessment Technology Institute (ATI) Critical Thinking Assessment (CTA) test upon entry into their first adult clinical nursing course. The students will be instructed on the use concept mapping in the theory section of the first two nursing courses over a twelve-week period. An active teaching learning method will be utilized to create the concept maps as they relate to the course content. The student’s critical thinking skills will be measured at the end of the twelve weeks by repeating the same standardized Assessment Technology Institute (ATI) Critical Thinking Assessment (CTA) test. The scores of the two testing periods will be statistically analyzed to assess the impact of concept maps on critical thinking skills.
A sample size of 22 students consented, but only six subjects completed the study. The data obtained from this pilot study were inconclusive. The small sample size with the CTA exit test results showed no statistical significant difference. The raw results ask more questions rather than providing answers.

Keywords:

Critical Thinking, Concept Maps, Nursing Education.