Paper
Sunday, November 4, 2007
284
Teaching Nursing Students Critical Thinking in the Clinical Experience: Use of the Critical Thinking Wizardİ
Deborah A. Tapler, PhD, RN and Nancy McMenamy, MS, RN. College of Nursing, Texas Woman's University, Dallas, TX, USA
| Learning Objective #1: Discuss the theoretical foundation of an innovative critical thinking tool for enrichment of clinical teaching. |
| Learning Objective #2: Apply the Critical Thinking Wizardİ to a patient case study to examine its effectiveness in fostering critical thinking in a clinical situation. |
The development of critical thinking strategies applicable to undergraduate nursing students is essential to facilitate high level thinking required by the profession. Nursing educators have the important responsibility to teach critical thinking patterns that students can apply in ever increasing complex patient situations throughout their nursing careers. The primary objective of the presentation is to describe the theoretical foundation of an innovative tool for enrichment of clinical teaching and evaluation of student learning. The Critical Thinking Wizard© was developed as a tool for the clinical setting to assist nursing students in the integration and prioritization of patient data. Novice nursing students tend to organize knowledge into isolated and separate facts. They are unable to “see the whole picture” in regards to delivery of comprehensive patient care. For example, the linkages between pharmacological interventions and assessment findings are often very difficult to conceptualize resulting in possibly unsafe delivery of patient care. Initially, students require clear-cut rules and learn best when following step-by-step guidelines. Through the implementation of the Critical Thinking Wizard©, students can discover important relationships between pertinent patient data. The one page tool is easy to use and successfully boosts the student to new levels of understanding regarding the connection of patient information to priority nursing interventions. The secondary objective of the presentation is to discuss the application of the Critical Thinking Wizard© as a teaching tool for educators who must assess the level of knowledge possessed by students when in the patient care area. An instructional tool such as the Critical Thinking Wizard©, when used to assist students with problem solving in the clinical experience, is a valuable instrument for facilitating critical thinking needed for the mastery of intellectual skills and abilities.