Abstract: Objective To understand the current situation and influencing factors of critical thinking capacity of clinical medical undergraduates during clinical probation. Methods Questionnaire survey was used. In January 2022,a total of 519 undergraduate students in clinical probation in a medical college were selected as the research subjects, and the Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory-Chinese Version was used to conduct a questionnaire survey. The scores of critical thinking capacity and its influencing factors of clinical trainees with different characteristics were obtained by multiple linear regression. Results The total score of critical thinking of these medical students was (277.96 ± 35.16), and 240(46.3%) students showed positive and strong positive tendency of critical thinking. The main influencing factors included gender, weekly after-school learning time, attitude towards medicine, and understanding of critical thinking. Women have stronger critical thinking ability than men (b=0.08,P=0.045).Compared with the weekly after class learning time<5 hours (b=-0.11, P=0.014), the students who spent more than 5 hours a week after class learning time and were interested in medicine (b=0.19, P<0.001) had stronger critical thinking ability; Compared with those who have heard about but do not understand (b=-0.15, P<0.001) and those who have not heard about (b=-0.19, P<0.001), students who know about critical thinking are more capable of critical thinking. Conclusions The critical thinking ability of medical students at the clinical probation stage needs to be improved. The cultivation and improvement of critical thinking ability of medical students can be promoted by adjusting clinical practice and skill class hours, setting up critical thinking related courses, improving the level of teachers, and changing teaching methods.

Key words: Students, medical, Critical thinking, Clinical probation, Influence factors