Thinking about thinking.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The nursing leadership at a 900-bed tertiary-care facility in the southeast believed an opportunity existed to improve the critical thinking abilities of the professional nursing staff. METHOD: A team, consisting of a diversified group of nurse educators and managers, had the opportunity to gain understanding of the critical thinking process of the nursing staff as well as to develop a plan designed to improve critical thinking skills. RESULTS: Outputs of the team included development of a critical thinking model and process as well as an action plan that specifically outlined how it would implement the model within the organization using a preceptor-based educational process. CONCLUSION: Nursing leadership within this facility believes that nurturing critical thinking in the staff will have a positive impact on care delivery outcomes. Creating shared visions through the assumptions that the staff and organization hold is important to improving care provided. Assisting staff with using a critical thinking process in order to construct, tear down, and then reconstruct clinical incidents as encouraged by this model is one key to problem-solving.