Instruction and Development of Critical Thinking in Nursing Education

The perceptions of nursing faculty teaching critical thinking (CT) affective attributes and cognitive skills are described in this quantitative, descriptive study. The study sample consisted of nurse educators from the National League of Nursing database. The study purpose was nursing faculty perception of teaching strategies for developing CT. The study explored the teaching nursing students CT affective attributes and cognitive skills in caring for clients with complex and multiple health care situations in technological health care environments. Nursing faculty create learning environments to promote CT. Questionnaires and phone interviews were conducted with nursing faculty on their perception of their effectiveness of teaching CT. Multiple teaching strategies were effective with questioning receiving 64.3% of the responses for teaching CT in classroom and clinical environments. The results indicated that nursing faculty believe that CT is a developmental process throughout the curriculum. The findings are congruent with current thinking about the use of simulation and technology in developing CT.