Creative Thinking Problem Solving and Communication Skills

Overview

Creative thinking is a very important factor, especially due to recent developments in technology and health. In order to adapt and contribute to these developments, creativity is also very important for the nursing profession, which is a health discipline consisting of science and art. Creative thinking skills need to be developed so that nurses can develop healthy interpersonal relationships, find solutions to the problems they encounter in their working and social life, approach the patient with a holistic perspective, use the knowledge they have acquired in education life at an optimal level in the delivery of health services, produce new information and gain a critical perspective. In today's information age, it is very important for professional development to develop the teaching models used in nursing education based on the philosophy of lifelong learning, to be revised frequently, to control the curriculum and to evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching techniques used at frequent intervals. The above-mentioned literature suggests that nurses should use creativity in their problem-solving and communication skills. In this context, it creates the need to use alternative creative thinking teaching techniques to develop nursing students' problem solving and communication skills. For this reason, the research was conducted to develop an intervention program based on creative thinking techniques in nursing education and to evaluate the effect of this program based on creative thinking techniques on problem solving and communication skills in nursing students. If a meaningful relationship is found between these variables and creative thinking education as a result of the research, the education program prepared on the subject will constitute a guide for the nursing curriculum in gaining creative thinking, problem solving and communication skills in nursing students.

Thinking is a mental activity, one of the most important aspects of the learning process. The most important feature of the thinking process is that it does not involve action and is an action done before acting. In this context, the individual can evaluate the strategies he will choose to reach his goals by using his mental processes and imagination. Creative thinking, one of the types of thinking, takes place in the first stage of the thinking process. At this stage, the person presents a new and original thought. In this context, it includes the skills to think creatively, generate new ideas, seek and find alternatives, adapt to a new approach, explore available options, and encourage assumptions. Creative thinking can be defined as shaping solutions to a problem or possible explanations of a phenomenon. Creative thinking and problem solving actions are considered metacognitive processes within the scope of cognitive science. Cognition; It is defined as the formation of meta or meaningful knowledge from knowledge and thus the realization of learning. Metacognition is the executive and guiding mechanism that controls the thinking process within the scope of information processing. While the individual knows how he thinks and learns while using metacognitive information, he can plan, monitor and evaluate this process with metacognitive control. Therefore, metacognition has an important place in creative thinking skills. The most important reason for this is that creativity is a new and valuable thought development process. Creative thinking is accepted as one of the core competencies of the twenty-first century and can be developed through education. Focusing on innovation draws attention to the need to develop creative thinking skills both in education and in other sectors. In this direction, the importance of developing creative thinking in nursing education emerges. Creativity in nursing education is an important factor in teaching creative thinking, awareness level, interpersonal relations and problem solving skills for skill acquisition. The role of the education system is very important in the development of educational programs that will help develop students' creativity. It is seen that there are theorists emphasizing the importance of creativity directly or indirectly in nursing science. In this context, creative thinking can be beneficial in raising the individual's awareness level, developing healthy interpersonal relationships, finding a solution to a problem in relationships, and using the knowledge acquired during undergraduate education at an optimal level in the delivery of health services. Learning communication skills, which is an important factor especially in psychiatric nursing, takes place primarily during undergraduate education. In this process, it is aimed to develop students personally and professionally both in theoretical courses and in practical training (clinical/field). When the studies on creative thinking are examined, it is seen that there are studies showing that creativity can be developed through education. Since the intervention program developed based on creative thinking techniques is thought to have an effect on the problem solving and communication skills of nursing students, the study was planned for this purpose.