Critical thinking in nursing education: Literature review

Critical thinking is defined as the mental process of actively and skillfully perception, analysis, synthesis and evaluation of collected information through observation, experience and communication that leads to a decision for action. In nursing education there is frequent reference to critical thinking and to the significance that it has in daily clinical nursing practice. Nursing clinical instructors know that students face difficulties in making decisions related to clinical practice. The main critical thinking skills in which nursing students should be exercised during their studies are critical analysis, introductory and concluding justification, valid conclusion, distinguish of facts and opinions, evaluation the credibility of information sources, clarification of concepts and recognition of conditions. Specific behaviors are essentials for enhancing critical thinking. Nursing students in order to learn and apply critical thinking should develop independence of thought, fairness, perspicacity in personal and social level, humility, spiritual courage, integrity, perseverance, self-confidence, interest for research and curiosity. Critical thinking is an essential process for the safe, efficient and skillful nursing practice. The nursing education programs should adopt attitudes that promote critical thinking and mobilize the skills of critical reasoning.

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“…So when they have knowledge of their own reasoning-as they apply critical thinking-they can detect syllogistic errors (22–26). …”

Section: Implementation Of Critical Thinking In Nursing Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Thinking: The Development of an Essential Skill for Nursing Students

et al. 2014

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“…suggest use of higher level objectives incorporating analysing, evaluating & creating. Interestingly, faculty used many lower level objectives (remembering, understanding & applying) but used multiple active, reflective, and cooperative strategies which are known to promote CT (Banning 2006;Loving & Wilson 2000;Simpson & Courtney 2002). Despite the use of lower level objectives, the students were actively engaged in their learning.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Creating Enabling Environment for Student Engagement: Faculty Practices of Critical Thinking

Cassum¹,

Gul²

2016

IJHE

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Critical thinking (CT) is considered an important attribute in practice disciplines and faculty members in nursing, medicine, and education are expected to facilitate the development of CT in their graduates so that these individuals can be critical, reflective, competent, and caring professionals and service providers. When students are actively engaged in their learning, and classrooms have an enabling environment, CT is promoted. Teachers must reflect upon their pedagogy when students do not participate in stimulating discussions, or asks questions in class. Research suggests that lack of understanding of CT affects teachers' CT practices in the classroom. Literature supports that teaching learning activities and opportunities that emphasize encouragement of students' participation in classroom fosters communication, student engagement, creativity, self -directedness and CT. Thus, it is vital to explore the teaching practices of educators that promotes or hinders students' CT. This study aimed to identify perceptions and practices of CT among educators from the disciplines of nursing, medicine, and education in higher education in Karachi. A descriptive exploratory design was used in the study. Using a purposive sample, 12 educators participated in this study. Data was collected via in-depth interviews and classroom observations. Data was analyzed manually; four major themes emerged from the content analysis. This paper focuses on the findings of educators' practices of CT in a classroom setting, which indicates that teachers needs to be aware that an enabling learning environment is necessary to promote students' CT. Moreover, the educators should create an enabling learning environment by focusing on the physical, psychological and intellectual components to promote CT in students.

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“…A nurse should never be satisfied with the minimum of information, but should ask challenging questions to solve complex health care problems. Hence, interpretation also refers to accurately interpreting problems as well as subjective and objective data from common sources on the care of the patient (Simpson & Courtney, 2002: ADEA, 2006). Curiosity, inquisitiveness and showing an inquiring mind are three essential concepts related to interpretation as a central concept to critical thinking.…”

Section: Interpretation Of the Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is also about paying careful attention to what we hear and read so that we can understand and respond appropriately. As critical thinkers we are not striving to become unfeeling or emotionless people, but rather to make judgments in which our feelings and emotions are properly expressed (Jones, 2001; Simpson & Courtney, 2002;Salmon, 2002,;; Howard . Critical thinking means that we take nothing for granted, but rather ask questions so that we become informed about situations around us and are willing to examine conflicting positions in a fair-minded way and accept that even beliefs that we have held all our lives might be wrong!…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptualisation as basis for the development ofcritical thinking within the nursing perspective

Pretoruis

Dyk

Small

et al. 2016

IJANS

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The purpose of this article is to present the conceptualise empirical findings arrived at from the needs assessment (phase 1), which reflected the application of critical thinking skills by the respondents. The ultimate aim was to develop an educational programme to facilitate critical thinking in nursing practice. Conceptualization as the definition of key concepts in a study with a view to integrating one's research into conceptual frameworks. The findings revealed six main concepts and their related sub-concepts. These concepts included interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation and self-regulation. These concepts were inferred from the deduction by the researcher. These concepts were the results of the concept analysis of critical thinking by 46 experts directed by Facione together with the related dispositions. These six main concepts constituted the framework within which the educational programme was developed. The following steps were followed during the conceptualization namely concepts synthesis, clarification of the concepts, interpretation of the concepts, analysis of the concepts, evaluation of the concepts, interference/ conclusion, explanation, self -regulation and critical approaches.

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Critical thinking in nursing education: Literature review

Cited by 219 publications

References 49 publications

Critical Thinking: The Development of an Essential Skill for Nursing Students

Critical Thinking: The Development of an Essential Skill for Nursing Students

Creating Enabling Environment for Student Engagement: Faculty Practices of Critical Thinking

Conceptualisation as basis for the development ofcritical thinking within the nursing perspective

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