The ability to function effectively in a dynamic, culturally diverse healthcare environment requires both critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN, 2008) recognizes the importance of humanities in the baccalaureate nursing curriculum. This quasi-experimental, nonrandomized…

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of using simulation and didactic instruction on critical thinking and clinical judgment with student nurses enrolled in a fall semester medical-surgical class. Specifically, it was of interest to compare the performance of these fall semester nursing students with the performance of nursing…

The task of developing vocational nursing students' critical thinking abilities is one of the greatest challenges facing nurse educators today. Licensed vocational nurses (LVNs) must be trained to think critically in order to provide safe patient care. Due to the expanded role and functions in the LVN's scope of practice, LVNs are making more…

Nurse educators, at every level of pre-licensure nursing education, are charged with developing critical thinking skills within their students. Post-clinical conference is one teaching strategy that nurse educators can employ to help promote the development of critical thinking skills in pre-licensure nursing students. However, traditional…

In today's technologically advanced healthcare world, nursing students should be active learners and think critically to provide safe patient care. A strategy that promotes students' active learning is case-based learning (CBL). The purpose of this study was to examine critical thinking (CT) abilities of nursing students from two different…

Alternative approaches to evaluating critical thinking skills are needed, as pencil and paper assessments may not accurately predict simulated or actual clinical performance. To ensure patient safety, it is imperative to determine how to best promote and measure critical thinking skills. Few studies have examined how these skills are related to…

The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory and California Critical Thinking Skills Test were administered to 328 nursing students. There were significant differences in disposition scores between sophomores and juniors/seniors. Weak truth-seeking disposition scores appeared at all levels. (SK)

A study examined the change in the critical thinking skills of associate degree nursing students as they progressed through their educational process at the Reedsburg campus of Madison Area Technical College (MATC) in Wisconsin. The study sample consisted of two cohorts of 24 students each (students entering MATC's associate degree nursing program…

Criterion 20 of the National League for Nursing's accreditation process requires documentation of critical thinking (CT) as an outcome of nursing education. This raises two questions: What is meant by CT? and How can it be measured? Building on a consensus construct of CT as articulated in the American Philosophical Association 1990 Delphi Report,…