Determining the level of last year nursing students critical thinking

The study was made as a descriptive for determining of critical thinking level of last year nursing students.Population of the study created from 947 last year nursing students in nursing departments of Hacettepe University Faculty of Health Sciences, Ataturk University Faculty of Health Sciences and Gaziantep University Faculty of Health Sciences and On Dokuz Mayıs University, Akdeniz University School of Health Sciences, Istanbul University and Ege University Faculty of Nursing in 2011-2012 academic year spring term. Sample group of the study consisted of 553 last year nursing students. In the study, data were collected with the aid of Student Demographic Characteristics Form and the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory.Independent sample t test, one-way analysis of variance, multiple comparisons test, Tukey test, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, median, frequency and percentage calculations was used for statistical analysis of data. Findings that gained from the study show that Critical thinking score averages of last year nursing students are =193.87±23.019 and this score averages are low level. Only analyticity sub-scale from CCTDI sub-scale score averages of students are mid level and the mean score of other dimensions are low level. Study shows that family structure and father education level have effect on critical thinking level of students (p<0.05). Students that participate social and scientific activity, students that perceive high socio-economic level themselves and students that read books between 6- 20 have high critical thinking score from average but this difference is not find significant statistically (p>0.05).Key Words: Critical Thinking, Nursing Students, Nursing Education