Abstract

Background: Mental health nurses often deal with complex clinical situations and face difficulties with the decision-making process. The development of educational techniques during nurses’ clinical practice is crucial to improve nurses’ skills in communication, assessment and effective intervention in patients with mental disorders. Problem Based Learning (PBL) teaching method is a student-centered educational method based on the integration of a real problem into the learning process. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the PBL on the development of critical thinking in undergraduate nursing students, in mental health clinical practice. Methods: A quasi - experimental study was conducted with a pre- and post-test design in an experimental group and a control group, in Greece, at the Larissa School of Nursing of the University of Thessaly. The study was conducted throughout the 6th spring semester of an undergraduate nursing program, in the course Psychiatry - Mental Health Nursing (clinical practice) during the academic year 2022-2023. Results: The study samples were comprised 67 students each. None of the students in either group had received PBL training previously. CTΑSS scores in intervention group differed statistically significantly in all subscales before and after the experimental procedure, p

Key words: Problem Based Learning, Critical thinking skills, Student nurse, Nursing Education.