A model to facilitate critical thinking of radiography students

Introduction: Critical thinking is a much-needed skill required by radiography students, across disciplines, when they graduate. The facilitation of critical thinking is a task that radiography educators are faced with in order to produce graduates who can apply these skills in the clinical setting, for the best care of the patient. The development of critical thinking skills is challenging, and currently there is no radiography-specific model which has been implemented and evaluated as a framework of reference for radiography educators. The aim of this article is to present a critical thinking model as a framework of reference that was implemented and evaluated by diagnostic radiography educators. Methods: A theory-generating qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design was used for the development of a model to facilitate critical thinking skills of diagnostic radiography students in a South African setting. Results: A theory-generation model to facilitate critical thinking skills for radiography students was developed. The model was implemented and evaluated by radiography educators. Three themes emerged from the evaluation of the model after implementation. The results indicated the implementation of the model provided a platform for radiography educators to collaborate and purposefully tailor activities to incorporate critical thinking into their teaching. Conclusions: Through the implementation of the model, radiography educators felt empowered by using a framework of reference to facilitate critical thinking skills of radiography students.