PURPOSE Improving physicians’ critical thinking abilities could have meaningful impacts on various aspects of routine medical practice, such as choosing treatment plans, making an accurate diagnosis, and reducing medical errors. The present study aimed to measure the effects of a curriculum integrating critical thinking on medical students’ skills at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran. METHODS A 1-group pre-test, post-test quasi-experimental design was used to assess medical students’ critical thinking abilities as they progressed from the first week of medical school to middle of the third year of the undergraduate medical curriculum. Fifty-six participants completed the California Critical Thinking Skills Test twice from 2016 to 2019. RESULTS Medical students were asked to complete the California Critical Thinking Skills Test the week before their first educational session. The post-test was conducted 6 weeks after the 2 and half-year program. Out of 91 medical students with a mean age of 20±2.8 years who initially participated in the study, 56 completed both the pre- and post-tests. The response rate of this study was 61.5%. The analysis subscale showed the largest change. Significant changes were found in the analysis (P=0.03), evaluation (P=0.04), and inductive reasoning (P<0.0001) subscales, but not in the inference (P=0.28), and deductive reasoning (P=0.42) subscales. There was no significant difference according to gender (P=0.77). CONCLUSION The findings of this study show that a critical thinking program had a substantial effect on medical students’ analysis, inductive reasoning, and evaluation skills, but negligible effects on their inference and deductive reasoning scores.

中文翻译：

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整合批判性思维的课程对伊朗医学生批判性思维能力的影响：一项准实验研究。

目的 提高医生的批判性思维能力可以对常规医疗实践的各个方面产生有意义的影响，例如选择治疗计划、做出准确诊断和减少医疗错误。本研究旨在衡量整合批判性思维的课程对伊朗德黑兰医科大学医学生技能的影响。方法 采用单组前测、后测准实验设计，评估医学生从医学院第一周到本科医学课程第三年中期的批判性思维能力。56 名参与者在 2016 年至 2019 年期间两次完成了加州批判性思维技能测试。结果 医学生被要求在第一次教育课程前一周完成加州批判性思维技能测试。后测在 2 年半课程结束后 6 周进行。在最初参与研究的 91 名平均年龄为 20±2.8 岁的医学生中，有 56 名完成了前测和后测。这项研究的反应率为 61.5%。分析分量表显示出最大的变化。在分析 (P=0.03)、评估 (P=0.04) 和归纳推理 (P<0.0001) 分量表中发现显着变化，但在推理 (P=0.28) 和演绎推理 (P=0.42) 分量表中没有发现显着变化. 性别无显着差异（P=0.77）。结论 本研究的结果表明，批判性思维计划对医学生的分析产生了实质性的影响，