The critical thinking skills of practicing family physicians: A population-based cross-sectional study

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Critical thinking (CT) skills are an important aspect of clinical reasoning and diagnosis. The goals of this study were to (1) examine levels of CT skills of practicing family physicians, (2) compare the CT skills of practicing family physicians to family medicine residents, and (3) identify individual variables and practice characteristics predictive of CT skills. . METHODS: We used a population-based, cross-sectional design to compare practicing and resident family physicians and examine the predictors of CT skills in practicing family physicians. Sixty-two practicing family physicians were recruited across Canada. We used data from 59 family medicine residents at a single institution in Canada. We used the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) to measure CT skills. We analyzed data using descriptive and univariate analysis, multivariate analysis of variance, and hierarchical multiple linear regression. CT skills were further examined in follow-up analysis using polynomial regression. RESULTS: Residents performed better than practicing physicians on nearly all aspects of CT (P