Abstract
The study was conducted to determine the effect of nursing students’ critical thinking levels on their creativity. The descriptive type research was conducted between May-June 2019. 1200 students studying at the Atatürk University Faculty of Nursing constituted the universe of the research. For the sampling; 220 students, from one branch of each class which was selected by lot, who accepted to participate in the study and could be reached were taken. Before the data collection; official institution and ethics committee permissions, and verbal and written consents of students were obtained. In the data collection, “Survey Form”, the “How Creative are You? Creativity Scale”, and the “California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory” were used. In the analysis of the data; numbers, percentiles, mean, Independent Samples t-Test, Anova, Kruskal-Wallis H-test and Pearson Correlation Analysis were used. Students' total creativity score was 37.55±17.43, overall critical thinking score was 195.77±19.45. A significant difference was obtained between the students' years in university, in terms of creativity levels and overall critical thinking tendencies (p<0.05). A significant difference was found between creativity levels of students in terms of parental education levels (p<0.05). A statistically positive and significant correlation was determined between the creativity levels and overall critical thinking tendencies of the students. As the result, the creativity levels of the students are below average, and their overall critical thinking tendencies are low. In order to provide creativity and critical thinking skills of nursing students, these subjects are recommended to be included in the curriculum.