CRITICAL THINKING

Critical thinking

Literature Review

Introduction

This literature review discusses the use of “Critical Thinking” in Nursing. The first article to be reviewed critically is “Critical Thinking in Nursing: An Integrated Review” by Barbara A. Brunt. In the article, she has discussed the concept of Critical Thinking in detail. According to her critical thinking skills are necessary to work in nowadays multifarious health care settings and to certify progressing capability for the coming days. Barbara (2005) gives a review of a variety of research studies and definitions associated with significant thinking. Researchers and educators must noticeably define the concept of critical thinking, since there has been an extensive distinction in descriptions and definitions of critical thinking. Many researches have shown contradictory conclusions, and many have employed a single-group pre-test and post-test design over a single path or through the length of a nursing plan. Many researches have not demonstrated a relationship between competence and critical thinking; thorough research studies are required to value the procedure of critical thinking.

The other article is “Nursing Education for Critical Thinking: An Integrative Review” by Barbara L. Adams. Her integrative evaluation of literature, reviews twenty researches that are from 1977 to 1995. Barbara L. Adams appraises the transformation of analysis in the critical thinking skills of qualified nursing students. She used the “Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Analysis” in her 18 of 20 studies. Ms. Adams' primary assumption was that critical thinking skills would increase during nursing education. However, the results of her review are contradictory and mixed.

Review

1. Barbara A. Brunt, (2005) “Critical Thinking in Nursing: An Integrated Review”, The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing · March/April · Vol 36, No 2, pp. 60-67.

According to Barbara (2005), today's nursing environment has changed. We have an aging population, increased sociocultural diversity, more acutely ill patients suffering from chronic diseases, decreased financial resources, more sophisticated technology, an emphasis on health promotion, and increased focus on ambulatory and home health care. To provide quality care in this environment, nurses need to develop critical thinking skills that will provide them with expertise in flexible, individualized, situation-specific problem-solving.

Barbara A. Brunt, rightly states that nursing education strives to develop critical thinking abilities in students through emphasis on process, inquiry, and reasoning. Critical thinking is a central competency in nursing education programs at all levels, although experience and knowledge should reasonably be expected to increase the level of sophistication students are able to bring to the process and the context in which they can apply that process. However, in the applied discipline of nursing, nurses need to reflect on their practice, learn from it, and build on that learning in their future practice. Some evidence shows that educators are not doing well teaching and assessing critical thinking skills. General themes are lack of a clear definition and problems with tools used to assess critical thinking, lack of research showing that nursing education contributes to critical thinking, and an unclear relationship between critical thinking and clinical ...