Creativity thinking of chulalongkorn medical students.

Abstract

Background : Creativity is an important attribute of physicians. Creativity helps improve and enhance medical students’ ability to think and provide qualified and effective services.

Objective : To study the level of creative thinking and factors affecting the creative thinking of Chulalongkorn Medical students.

Design : A cross – sectional descriptive study.

Setting : Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University.

Materials and Methods : The data were collected by questionnaires from 434 medical students of Chulalongkorn University who were in the first to the fifth year in 2010. Questionnaire consisted of demographic data, creative thinking and achievement motivation measures. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independence t - test, one-way ANOVA, and multiple linear regression analysis where appropriate.

Results : The results show mean and SD of creative thinking scores are 42.2 and 6.60 respectively. They are within moderate level. The creativity on originality and fluency at subscale is of moderate level while elaboration at subscale is of high level. Factors associated with an increased scores of creative thinking are studying in private or demonstration schools (B = 1.74, p = .003), the drive to achievement on diligence (B = 1.55, p = .008), on competition (B = 5.04, p < .001) and on planning subscale (B = 1.56, p = .002).

Conclusion : Most medical students had moderate level of creative thinking. Students from private schools or demonstration schools, and high level of drive to achievement and have high creative thinking scores. The results may be used as guidance to the related institution to improve the thinking capacity of medical students in the future.