A semester-long critical thinking course in the first semester of pharmacy school: Impact on critical thinking skills

Introduction: To determine whether critical thinking improved after student-pharmacists participated in a semester-long critical thinking course in the first semester of pharmacy school. Methods: Students took the Health Sciences Reasoning Test-Numeracy (HSRT-N) on the first and last day of the course. The overall HSRT-N score, percentile ranking, and eight sub-categories within the HSRT-N (analysis, interpretation, inference, evaluation, explanation, induction, deduction, and numeracy) were evaluated. A multivariable quantile regression model evaluated the association between the post-test percentile and student age, at which campus the student was enrolled, and how many minutes the students required to take the test. Results: There were no significant differences in overall scores, percentile, or the sub-category scores with the exception of a significant increase in the analysis score and a significant decrease in the induction score. There was a greater increase for students in the lower quartiles on the pretest compared to students in the higher quartiles on the pre-test. The largest percentile change occurred in students in the 25th-50th percentiles. Conclusion: A statistically significant improvement in the analysis category of the HSRT-N and a greater increase for students in the lower quartiles on the pre-test to the post-test suggests students with the lowest quartiles on the HSRT-N would benefit the most from a critical thinking course.