The Effects of Nursing Education on Critical Thinking of Students: A Meta-Analysis

Aim: The present study was aimed atinvestigating the effect of nursing education on the improvement of students’critical thinking skills in Turkey by using the meta-analysis method.

Method: The literature screening wascarried out in online databases using the keywords “nursing”, “student”,“critical thinking”, “Turkey” in English and their Turkish equivalents “hemşirelik”,“öğrenci”, “eleştirel düşünme”, “Türkiye” respectively. Quantitative studiesmatching the inclusion criteria were included in the study. The number of theparticipants in those studies was 3792 (2183 first-year students and 1609last-year students). For the analysis of the data, the CMA (ComprehensiveMeta-Analysis Software) statistical package program was used. While the Q andI2 tests were used to test the homogeneity of the studies, the ClassicFail-Safe N test and Kendall’s Tau were used to test their publication bias.Fixed and random models were used to calculate the effect size.

Results: The results indicated that 10studies met the inclusion criteria, and that the studies included in the studywere heterogeneous and had no publication bias. The mean effect size was 0.114at the 95% significance level [CL=0.087-0.440].

Conclusion: The results of the studyindicated that nursing students were not able to develop their criticalthinking skills and that there is a need for implementations to develop theircritical thinking skills. This study will provide guidance for nursing schooladministrators and educators to develop critical thinking skills of nursingstudents.

Cite this article as: Kantek, F. ve Yıldırım, N. (2019). The effects of nursing education on critical thinking of students: A meta-analysis. FNJN Florence Nightingale Journal of Nursing, 27(1), 17-25