TITLE:
Evaluation of an Educational Programme to Facilitate Critical Thinking of Student Nurses
AUTHORS:
Louise Pretorius, Hans Justus Amukugo, Agnes Van Dyk, Louis F. Small
KEYWORDS:
Evaluation, Educational Programme, Facilitate, Critical Thinking and Student Nurses
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.3 No.10,
October
31,
2016
ABSTRACT: This article deals with phase 4 of the study, namely the evaluation of the educational programme developed in phase 2. The development of the educational programme was aimed at the facilitation of the development of critical thinking in the student nurse. The purpose of phase four (4) was to evaluate whether the researcher had achieved the objective of the educational programme, namely to facilitate the development of critical thinking skills of the final year student nurse. Specific objectives were therefore set for phase 4. Further, hypotheses were formulated and tested during this phase of the study. The aim of formulating a hypothesis was to determine whether any development had taken place in the experimental group who participated in the educational programme. All fourth-year nursing students (47) who complied with the inclusion criteria participated in the educational programme. Each participant consented in writing to be part of the programme—including the pretest and posttest. A total of 53 students participated as the control group in the pretest and posttest. All the participants in the experimental and control groups of the study were registered for the Comprehensive Diploma in Nursing at the University of Namibia. Reasons were advanced in chapter 3 for the fact that the participants in the study were final-year students at the Windhoek and Oshakati campuses of the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. It was concluded that the implementation and evaluation of a three-day educational programme on the facilitation of the development of critical thinking within a quasi-experimental design had desired results. Students from both the main campus (Windhoek) and the Northern Campus (Oshakati) of the Department of Nursing at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences of the University of Namibia were included in the quasi-experiment. Internal validity of the design was ensured by eliminating the threats to an experimental design.