There is much debate on the best way to educate students on how to generate hypotheses to enhance clinical reasoning in nursing education. To increase opportunities for nursing programs to promote the discovery of accurate and broad-level hypotheses, scholars recommend abductive reasoning which offers an alternative approach to hypothetico-deductive reasoning. This study explored the effects of abductive reasoning training on hypothesis generation abilities (accuracy, expertise, breadth) of first and second year baccalaureate nursing students in a problem-based learning curriculum. A quasi-experiment with 64 participants (29 control, 35 experimental) was conducted. Based on their allocation, study participants either took part in abductive reasoning training or informal group discussion. Three different test questionnaires, each with a unique care scenario, were used to assess participants’ hypothesis generation abilities at baseline, immediate post-test and one-week follow-up. Content validity for care scenarios and other study materials was obtained from content academic experts. Compared to control participants, experimental participants showed significant improvements at follow-up on hypothesis accuracy (p=0.05), expertise (p=0.006), and breadth (p=0.003). While control participants’ hypotheses displayed a superficial understanding of care situations, experimental participants’ hypotheses reflected increased accuracy, expertise and breadth. This study shows that abductive reasoning, as a scaffolding teaching and learning strategy, can allow nursing students to discover underlying salient patterns in order to better understand and explain the complex realities of care situations. Educating nursing students in abductive reasoning could enable them to adapt existing competencies when trying to accurately and holistically understand newer complex care situations. This could lead to a more holistic, person-based approach to care which will allow nursing students to see various health-related issues as integrated rather than separate. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This study explored the effects of a training program on hypothesis generation abilities of nursing students. The training program aimed to teach students how to think more broadly about care situations. Student’s hypothesis generation abilities were measured through the use of three care scenarios, each of which was presented before, immediately after and one-week after the training program. Only first and second year nursing students were included in the study. About half of the students were provided with the training while the other half were provided with informal discussion about hypothesis generation. After one-week, it was discovered that students who received the training had improved significantly in their ability to generate broad hypotheses. These students also generated hypotheses that were more accurate than the other group of students who did not receive the training. Due to the training, students’ abilities in discovering the important aspects of the care situation also improved.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/18113 |
| Date | 06 1900 |
| Creators | Mirza, Noeman Ahmad |
| Contributors | Akhtar-Danesh, Noori, Nursing |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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