Cultivating Innovative Behavior and Creative Thinking among Nursing Students: An Intervention Study.

Background: As a part of the rapidly developing and changing healthcare system, nursing students need to be creative and innovative in order to adapt to change. Studies on innovation education are few in the literature. A literature search showed that there was no study examining the effect of the "Innovation in Nursing" course on the innovativeness and creative thinking among nursing students in Turkey. Aim: To determine the effect of this course on the innovative behavior and creative thinking of nursing students. Methodology: Innovation in Nursing Course, one of the elective courses in the fourth grade of the nursing program, was a 14-week course that was conducted through two contact hours per week. The experimental group was enrolled in the elective course of "Innovation in Nursing." The control group was enrolled in another elective course. Overall, 124 nursing students (63, experimental group; 61, control group) in the second year of university were included. The Individual Innovativeness and Creative Thinking scales were applied to the students at the beginning and end of the term. Statistical Package for Social Sciences 20 statistical package program was used for data analysis. Data were analyzed through descriptive tests, chi-squared test, the independent samples t-test and paired t-test using statistical package software. Results: The post-test scores of individual innovativeness and creative thinking disposition of the students in the experimental group were found to be significantly higher than those of the students in the control group. Conclusions: It was observed that the "Innovation in Nursing" course was effective in cultivating innovative behavioral characteristics and creative thinking disposition among students. The results of this study show that the "Innovation in Nursing" course can be used to increase the innovative behavioral characteristics and creative thinking disposition among nursing students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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