Self-Assessment and Measurement of Professional Respiratory Therapists’ Critical Thinking Skills

Abstract

Background:

Professional respiratory therapists (RTs) should possess and use critical thinking when caring for patients with cardiopulmonary disorders. Along with foundational respiratory care knowledge, RTs caring for neonatal-pediatric patients with congenital heart defects and acquired heart diseases require specific knowledge of complex anatomy, physiology, hemodynamic monitoring, and gas exchange capabilities. The purpose of this pilot study was to assess, measure, and compare the critical thinking skillset of professional RTs working in a neonatal-pediatric cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) using a validated critical thinking self-assessment questionnaire and the Health Professional Critical Thinking Assessment (HPCTA).

Methods:

Forty-three RTs from a large pediatric hospital who work in a neonatal-pediatric CICU completed both critical thinking assessments over three months. Ordinal least square regression and Spearman’s rank correlations were used to assess the relationship between the therapists’ assessment results and demographic characteristics.

Results:

The RTs rated their self-assessed critical thinking skills as very well to quite well, whereas they had moderate critical thinking skills and positive critical thinking dispositions on the HPCTA. The RTs’ self-assessed critical thinking skills were not statistically significant predictors for their overall measured critical thinking score, and only select critical thinking constructs correlated with one another. Collectively, the RTs’ demographic characteristics were not statistically significant predictors of their measured critical thinking skills; however, male RTs had higher measured explanation (F _1,20 = - 4.22, P = .05) and evaluation (F _1,20 = 7.90, P = .01) skills.

Conclusions:

Self-assessed critical thinking results should not substitute measured critical thinking results. There is a need to develop ongoing critical thinking learning activities and assessments for professional RTs that promote improvement of their critical thinking capabilities.